Lessons in Respect
by Nature9000
Summary: Struggling to bring her grades up in her senior year, Tori's frustration reaches new levels when her friends disrupt her studies for a poker game. When her family tries to ward them off, she observes their behavior. Frustrated with their continued disrespect of her family, she hatches a series of tests to see how much they value her friendship and truly respect her and her family.
1. Disrespect and Distractions

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N: This was meant to be a oneshot, but the content of what it involves promotes more than that, however it's not a full-fledged story at the same time, so it's a short story right in the middle of it. Of course it revolves around Tori, but it's something I've not seen really done before.

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Chapter 1 (Disrespect and Distraction)

Tori hunched over her AP Chemistry textbook, scratching her head with the eraser of a number two pencil. She had a few more months left of her senior year and needed to bring up her grade in science, which was appalling to her. Somehow, much to the shock and dismay of her family, she managed to let it slip.

It wasn't anyone's fault but her own, she put too much focus on theatre and singing, influenced by her friends, that she neglected her passion for science. Of course, there were a lot of things she knew she'd been neglecting, and she was beginning to grow tired of it. Her dream was originally to be a biologist, and her childhood dream had been to be a veterinarian.

Her best friend Courtney, she'd neglected since joining Hollywood Arts, and that was the girl she did everything with including sharing the same dream. Of course, Courtney's elder brother, Sinjin, was now engaged to her sister, so the two were _trying_ to reconnect. Then there was t `he boy she was working on a science project with when she first met Andre-it was the one time she strayed from working with Courtney on a project because she had a crush on the guy. Now, it was more recently, she'd ran into him again and started talking about how their lives were going, and she suggested they go out on a date. He _turned her down_, primarily because she 'changed'.

Changed how, she wondered? Why wouldn't he take her out? So what if she focused more on a hobby than anything, she still thought she was the same old girl she used to be. Then, after some time of contemplation, she was starting to see how she'd been letting her friends treat her family, and it was slowly beginning to piss her off that _she_ was allowing _them_ to walk all over them! They thought it was okay because she never said anything, surely that was it.

Tori licked a finger and turned the page in her book. "Concept of chemical imbalances in the human brain…" All this cramming wasn't so good either, since she was beginning to stress out and grow increasingly frustrated at even the smallest of instances. "Changing attitudes or behaviors through strenuous testing…" She never believed much in the whole 'give a treat for good behavior' trick, but at the same time, there was solid proof that it ended up working. It all had to do with the Serotonin in the human brain.

This project was assigned to her by her professor, and she'd have to write an essay about the chemicals in the human brain and how people acted to different tests. What annoyed her was it seemed more to do with psychology than chemistry, but the two _did_ go hand in hand much like science and math. "I can't believe I'm failing this stuff. That's not me…" Trina was the athlete like their father, but she was the one with the firmer intellect. Like her mom, who was a nurse that worked seemingly endless shifts, Tori still wanted to go into something similar.

She understood the human body, she understood the chemical makeup and everything. Science was her thing like sports was Trina's! How embarrassing it was for her to be failing the one subject that should be the highest.

Just then the front door flew open. She jumped at Jade's voice and leaned against her hand, propping her elbow on the table while slowly furrowing her brow at the friends. "Tori! Get the cards out!" Jade declared. "We're playing cards now!" Her eyebrow rose and her head rolled towards the right.

"I'm busy guys."

"You've been studying all week," Beck remarked, "It's time to take a break." She was taking adequate breaks. For every hour she studied, she took a ten minute break each thirty minutes. "Besides, it's our weekly game night."

"This is important."

Jade grabbed the book from the table and slammed it shut. Tori's hair fell before her slowly widening eyes. Her lips dipped into a frown and her left hand fingers slowly tapped her knee. "Not more important than game night. Besides, you're already passing every class, smartass."

"I'm borderline on science. That's an issue for me."

"Oh whatever, so what if you make one D. You're making As in theatre, a B in Math, who cares if you have a D?" Normally this wouldn't be that problematic, but that was assuming a C or a D was in one of the grades that didn't have a big tie in to her ego or pride.

"I do?" It was her favorite subject they were talking about! "You guys don't get it-"

"You got to make time for friends," Robbie chortled. Tori straightened herself and lowered her right hand to the surface of the table. Did she not make time for them? Considering how they treated her family, constantly calling her mother lazy or saying how talentless Trina was, she was pretty sure she let them have free reign for long enough. Now she was asking for some alone time so she could study, and they weren't getting it?

"I have a test coming up, _plus_ a paper I need to write on human behavior and the neurotoxins of the brain."

"Bah! When are you ever going to use that crap anyway?"

"Do I hear your friends down there, Tori?!" Trina's voice echoed from upstairs, giving her little time to react. She listened to her sister's footsteps making their way down. Trina herself had been studying for one of her college courses and did not want to be disturbed, so she was well aware that if her sister was getting involved, she would be equally annoyed.

Tori watched her friends roll their eyes and moved her lips into a flat line. Her eyes dipped to the textbook in Jade's hand. Her body was beginning to heat up as she fought off the temptation to tear that book away from her friend. "Who asked you?" Jade inquired of Trina. "We're only here to play poker like always, this isn't any of your business."

"The hell it's not." Trina swept her hair over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes. "Tori is studying and needs to write a paper, she cannot do anything with you guys tonight."

"Girl no one cares for your opinion," Rex piped. Tori slid her gaze to the puppet on Robbie's arm, and immediately her mind was debating the various chemical imbalances that would lead to Robbie being so devoted to a toy-and pretending it was real.

Jade put her hands to her hips, "He's right. No one likes you, so go back up to your cave and do whatever it was you were doing." Trina moved her hand to her chest and Tori glanced back to Jade. Her lips thinned further as her eyelids slid down halfway. "You can't make us leave."

"Excuse me, but who do you think lives here? When Dad or Mom are not home, I'm the one in charge. So get that through your head. Tori's friends or not-if I tell you to leave-then you are going to leave."

Jade smirked at the woman and sat down on the couch, throwing her heels up onto the coffee table. Tori exhaled slowly and looked down to the assignment given to her by her teacher. "We don't mean anything by it," Andre assured, "We just think it's unfair that Tori hasn't been spending enough time with us lately."

"She did say she was busy-and get your feet off the coffee table please. Mom bought that and doesn't want it scuffed up."

"Mrs. Vega bought the table?" Beck questioned, "With her own money?" Tori bowed her head and moved her hands to her temples. Her focus and concentration was gone, and once more her friends were disrespecting her sister.

Why did she even allow it to continue? Approval? That's what Lane said, that she must have been so concerned with approval of her new friends that she just let them say and do whatever with her family without consequence, and now it had just gotten out of hand and she'd never been able to think of a thing to say.

"I didn't know Mrs. Vega worked," Cat chimed happily.

Rex laughed and Tori lifted her head at the sound of Robbie's voice coming through the puppet. "I always thought she was too busy being lazy and screwing men that weren't her husband." That wasn't entirely true. Yes she had the affair with Gary, but that ended a year ago. Holly and David even reconciled over it.

"That ended guys," Tori muttered, "I told you she wasn't having that affair anymore. Get with the program here, people."

"I still don't believe she works." The door opened and Holly walked into the house, adjusting her purse strap on her shoulder. She paused to look at Tori's friends, raising a disappointed eyebrow. Tori's head fell to the table and a groan drifted from her lips. "Speaking of whom!"

Holly pointed to the friends and looked to Tori. "Victoria, I thought you were supposed to be studying."

"I _was_, mom…" Her voice was dripping with annoyance. Holly put her hands to her hips while Jade motioned to her, half assuming the annoyance was directed towards Holly.

"Look, she's even annoyed with you guys. As always." She rolled her eyes and lifted her head up, sighing heavily at Jade. If these people really valued or respected her friendship, they would listen to her when she told them she was busy. Right? So why the hell were they not leaving her alone? "Just leave things be, we're playing cards like usual."

"I already said no," Tori growled. She could feel the fire burning in her chest. Cat gave her a sorrowful look, as if understanding her annoyance. Tori pushed herself up from the table and walked to Jade, grabbing the textbook and pushing Jade's feet off the coffee table. "Please keep your feet off that. Please?" Just then, Beck sat down beside Jade and promptly put his feet on the coffee table as if he hadn't heard her. "Beck! Come on!"

"What?"

"Feet! Off! Now!" She was reminded of behavior conditioning, and a lightbulb went off in her head. Her fingers grasped the edge of the heavy textbook and her lips lifted to a small grin. If her teacher needed a report on whether or not human behavior could be modified, maybe she _could_ kill two birds with one stone. She needed to teach her friends respect, and to see if they even valued her friendship at all, and she could easily get some research done to write that paper while studying at the same time.

As Beck removed his feet from the coffee table, the others started to surround them. Tori lifted her hand to her bangs and moved them over the right side of her head. "All right guys, if you don't think that I've been spending enough time with you…" Trina and Holly both looked at her with concern and disapproval, which was to be expected, as she hadn't quite formulated how she would be going about this. "I'll think of a way to involve you guys in something, but like I said-I _have_ to get stuff done tonight. Poker can wait."

The friends all grumbled and protested, but ceased when David entered the home minutes later. The man was in full uniform and did not appear happy that Tori's friends were over and distracting her from her homework.

Needless to say, they left soon after, and Tori was able to return to her homework while planning out some research beneficial to multiple people. She wanted to see how far their friendship and attention went, if they were capable of respecting her and her family, and also she wanted to find out if she could apply them to her science paper in any way at all.

Yes, she'd make ample time for them-as her own lab rats. They used her and treated her family like a doormat, it was time to turn things around.

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So like I said, this won't be long, probably 10 chapters or less. Since it's originally a oneshot. I don't have the other parts finished but this is the start. Hopefully it's intriguing thus far. Tell me, what are your thoughts?


	2. Doubts Raised

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N: Only because I want to start the ball rolling for you will I put this up this early. This gives more of a where-things-are deal than the last chapter does

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Chapter 2 (Doubts Raised)

The next morning, Tori awoke to the sound of Maroon 5's song _Harder to Breathe_ emanating from Trina's bedroom across from the hall. She slowly sat up, curling the right corner of her lip upwards as her eyes turned to the door. This particular type of song was used by Trina whenever she was practicing her martial arts. In some instances it was like an alarm clock for Tori, which she appreciated more and more. Of course, with Trina getting married soon, she'd be moving soon and Tori wouldn't have that alarm clock any longer.

A yawn wafted from her throat, she stretched her arms out and opened her lips to release the yawn. After the friends left last night, Tori managed to finish studying before going to bed. She studied herself in the mirror on the desk across from her bed, cringing at the frizzled mess that her hair was in.

It took her nearly twenty minutes to get ready for the morning-fifteen of which were consumed in the shower. When she went to check on her sister, Maroon 5's song _Wake Up Call_ was playing. She couldn't help but to hum along. "Hey Tri?" She rounded the corner to see Trina punching and kicking the air, her right leg was higher than her head. The sunrise shone through Trina's window and glinted off the glaze of sweat on her body. Her hair clung to the skin of her neck and bare shoulders, and her nostrils flared out with each breath.

Trina grabbed a towel from the bed and turned to Tori, "Yeah?" She leaned her shoulder against the doorframe and folded her forearms at her waist. She watched her sister wipe the sweat from her faced and neck. This was routine for Trina, warming up before going on her morning jog.

"Are you going to Sinjin's today? I kind of want to see Courtney. I thought maybe we could go over together."

"There's a surprise. You and Courtney haven't really gotten along like you used to, so I'm not sure how open she'll be-but it's worth a shot. I'm heading over to his place for lunch."

"Thanks, and yea I'm _trying_ to reconnect with her." No easy task either, she had the same view of her apparently that Ian had. Ian was the guy she left the tree-mold project to before leaving for Hollywood Arts. She still felt guilty about never finishing that with him and hoped he got a good grade on it. "So let me know when you're heading out?"

"Sure. Don't bring one of your little friends either, Courtney hates them."

"I _know_ that." With what she had in mind, she thought Courtney would be more than willing to help. She needed ideas, though, and who better to help her deal with her friends than her former best friend forever? She was angry with her, no doubt, but Tori wasn't giving up on the girl. "You and Sinjin are getting married, Courtney and I should at least be on speaking terms…"

"There are a few people you ought to be on proper speaking terms with."

"Very funny." She laughed dryly and shook her head. "Hey, can I jog with you today?" Trina shot her a skeptical look and walked over to the stationary bike next to her window. The bike had a cup holder where a Delta Blue water bottle was resting.

"_You_ want to jog with _me_? Can you even keep up with me?"

"No." Tori curved her lip into a smirk and wagged her eyebrows confidently. "You'll just have to go at my pace, sis." Trina grabbed her water bottle and laughed. Tori moved her hands to her hips and slanted her eyelids. "Come on, I'm not that out of shape. Besides! I just want to talk to you."

"There's a reason I jog alone, Tori. I like the peace and quiet. I don't have to deal with you or those friends of yours."

"You're turning me down because of my friends? Really?"

"I have my reasons, but I'm not turning you down _because_ of them. I'm still on edge after last night-I do not understand why you let them disrespect you like that." Trina uncapped her bottle and took a swig of the fluid. Tori leaned to the right and watched as her sister gulped down half of the bottle.

"I know they're a problem, sis. That's what I want to talk to you about. If it's me you're angry at-"

"I'm not angry at you. Like Mom and Dad, I think I'm more disappointed. Disappointed that my little sister let a few new friends change who she was because of approval. That's what it's all about, right? Approval? Sinjin's a teacher's assistant for Sikowitz as you know, so what he hears you and your friends talk about-he relays to me. You don't even _try _to defend us, Tori." Tori pressed her lips together, forming small lines at the corners of her mouth. "They walk all over us, they walk all over you. When you were going to Sherwood, you would never have let that happen-and hell, you'd _never_ be failing a science course!" Trina set the bottle back in its holder and moved her hands to her hips. "What's wrong with you? I've been biting my tongue for the last couple of years, but Sinjin and Courtney are right-I should have said something. Those friends of yours think they can treat us however the hell they want without repercussion. They cause a big fight between Dad and myself, even."

"What do you mean? What happened?"

Tori followed her sister to the door. A wrinkle formed between her eyebrows and her nose scrunched. "You remember a couple years ago, I was acting like a diva, and yes I acknowledge I was being stupid by trying to cause friction with your friends, and I spread that rumor about Beck?"

"Yeah, that didn't last long."

"Of course not, because I stopped bothering with it. Beck came over here with Andre and Robbie, started fighting and went so far as to restrain me." Tori's lips slid apart and shock swept over her, paralyzing her. She never knew about this. Her friends never told her the things they did. "Deciding it was better not to kick their asses myself for even touching me, I called Dad down, he was already swamped with work, had a headache, so he wasn't in the best of mind. Your friends went behind the couch, pulled out these puppets, and humiliated me in front of Dad by making me out to seem like an idiot who just lost her mind-and Dad believed them!"

"Ouch…I never knew they did that."

"You should ask Mom what she remembers." She tilted her head to the right and slowly walked down the stairs. Holly was a nurse, constantly working hard, so she was always exhausted when she came home. Yes she was still always on the phone, but nowadays it was only coworkers she was texting, and she did this if she wasn't watching television or preparing dinner. "Remember when you were giving blood at the hospital?"

"Don't remind me." The nurse kept drawing blood from her after mysteriously losing the last pack. "I'm almost surprised that nurse didn't get fired!"

"She did, Tori. Remember, in the medical field, who gets the blame for staff negligence?"

"The doctor." Doctors always have to take responsibility for whatever happens in their practice. She forgot the terminology used to describe that.

"Right, they are the one that gets sued. Dad was going to sue unless the doctor agreed to not only fire the nurse responsible, but he got the Doctor to pay for damages." It was gross malpractice. When in a hospital , if blood is drawn from a patient and something happens, you are supposed to _stop_ procedure. Do not take further blood unless the patient is well and approves. Because of the nurse's actions that day, Tori could very well have died from all that blood loss.

"What does that have to do with my friends?"

"Mom talked with the nurse off duty and found out that the packets of blood kept disappearing, so she had one of the hospital security bring up the camera footage to see what happened. Jade was constantly stealing the blood." Tori's blood ran cold and her body numb, she could believe what she was hearing. Why had no one told her this?

"No one thought to bring this up with me?"

"You wouldn't have listened to any of us."

"Trina…" She was right. At that time, Tori probably wouldn't want to hear that her friend had anything to do with that traumatizing memory. Even now she could hardly trust hospitals! She didn't avoid them, and often volunteered at the volunteer clinic that her mom worked at on the weekends, but she didn't like to be treated on.

Trina moved to the front door and did a couple stretch exercises before pushing open the door and jogging in place. "I'll talk to you later, Tori. I'll drive you out to Courtney around noon."

"So you want to jog alone?"

"I'd prefer it, at least today. I can't calm down if someone else is around."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." As Trina left, Tori took a seat on the couch and let out a sharp exhale. She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. Frown lines formed beside her mouth and her jaw popped to the right. She wanted to stand her friends up in a line and hit each of them, preferably with her dad's old high school baseball bat, but she was not a violent person. What she needed to do was figure out just how much these friends of hers really valued her friendship-if at all. These popular kids-back at Sherwood Oaks she would never have befriended these types. Her friends had been those in clubs such as the Math club, or the Bio-nerds.

The only reason she ever got into Hollywood Arts was because she liked to sing in the shower, and Trina thought she'd be good for the school. Hell, Trina even blew that song so she could get in. Over all these years, how many things had her friends done to her or her family that would constitute as near criminal? Hell, she knew one of them was responsible for Trina having nearly broken her neck in that play two years ago after someone cut that damn cord onstage! Even Andre didn't seem to give a shit, as they were talking to Lane all Andre wanted to do was find his damn date before she thought he was blowing her off.

Trina was right to question where she went wrong. It was never this easy for her to trust people, but supposedly all she wanted was approval from these popular friends. Hell, they were the only people talking to her when she arrived at that school. She and Courtney used to joke about these kind of people all the time at Sherwood. Thinking back, it was a tad hypocritical that she'd become one of them, but the difference was she acknowledged it. Those days were over now, she would assure herself and everyone else of that.

"_The people at the popular table are just vain and self-centered, they only care about themselves." _What part of that wasn't true? How much of a damn did her friends give? How could she blow off someone like Courtney, like Ian, for a bunch of people who didn't appear to have any semblance of respect for someone else? Even if they didn't like someone, there was a line that a person should never cross, and she'd allowed them to do so many times.

This would not happen again. It was time to find out who her real friends were.

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Well your input and observations my dear readers?


	3. What is Real?

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

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Chapter 3 (What is Real)

Sitting in Trina's parked car, Tori studied her fingers as she slid them along the smooth outer shell of the door. Her eyes drifted slowly to Sinjin's home and a bout of nervousness overcame her. "Are you coming out or not?" Trina stepped in front of the window, peering into her eyes. "You wanted to come along, so I don't care if you sit in the car or not, but if you stay there you won't be talking to Courtney like you wanted."

Tori slipped her hand back into the car and closed her eyes. She stifled a snicker and pushed the car door open. "I'm going in, just give me a minute. You're not the one seeing an old friend you blew off. I'm trying to think of a plan."

"Too much strategizing, just go in there…" Trina pulled her out of the car and guided her to the door. Tori pulled away and dusted off her arm, sighing as her sister opened the door. "Sinji! We're here!"

"In the kitchen," Sinjin called out. Tori's eyebrows shot up and Trina moved her hand to her forehead. They knew he wasn't the best cook. He once put a pie in the oven and left it sitting there for three hours without remembering to take it out.

"Tell me you're not trying to cook. Didn't I say _I_ would make lunch?" Trina rushed off, leaving Tori by herself. She inhaled slowly and exhaled from her lips. A dog could be heard barking from the hallway. Her lips curved up and she moved in the direction of the dog.

The barking belonged to a small chocolate lab puppy in Courtney's bedroom. The puppy was standing on its hind legs, pointing her nose up at a dog treat being held by Courtney. "Hold, Choco. Stay…" Tori leaned against the doorframe, watching as the pup continued to bark. "Good girl." Courtney glanced over and her mouth sagged, causing her glasses to sink down her slender nose. "Choco. Sic her."

"Hey! Not nice." Tori pushed herself off the door frame, watching as Courtney tossed the treat into the air. Choco jumped up to catch the treat, then climbed onto Courtney's bed. "Is that any way to greet a best friend?"

"Who are we talking about here, Princess Diva?" Courtney sat on the edge of the bed and rested her arm on Choco's back, petting the puppy's head. "It's been a couple years. Hell, even when our siblings started dating, finally, I never heard from you. Sounds like you're having a pretty good time at Hollywood Arts."

"Eh." Courtney's words ran through her like a hot knife to the heart. "It's been a ride, that's for sure." She looked to her old friend's desk and smiled at a microscope with a petri dish under it. "Hey! What are you studying over there?" She made her way over and Courtney raised an eyebrow.

"Growing bacteria with nutrient agar. I have a few samples that I'm checking out, such as bacteria from the mouth of a human versus a dog, and bacteria from a computer keyboard. Project for school…That right there is bacteria from the grout between bathroom tiles."

"Sweet…" From a naked visual perspective, the petri dish had a yellowish color with some black circles that appeared like mold. "Can I check it out?"

"I guess." Tori leaned over the microscope and carefully placed her eye over it. She adjusted the lens to get a clearer picture. When she saw the bacteria moving around, she felt a rush of excitement. Courtney stepped beside her and crossed her arms. "We really need to get a new cleaner for the bathroom floor…and maybe a better mop."

"I recommend Swiffer."

"Yeah. To think that's what we've been walking on…" Tori leaned upright and looked over to Courtney. Her eyebrows lifted energetically and her lips curled into a smile. "Anyway, I'm surprised to see you still care about science. I thought those friends of yours got you interested in being some sort of diva pop star." Tori's smile fell. She moved her hand to her neck gently rubbing at a sore spot.

"Right. About that, I've been wanting to talk to you." Courtney folded her arms and tilted her head. The girl met her eyes and gently tapped her foot on the floor. "I know I screwed up by leaving Sherwood and going to Hollywood Arts-"

"That's not why you screwed up-but the timing of that move was pretty coldhearted." She winced, remembering Ian and that mold project. It was years ago, but just knowing that she never finished the project weighed her down with guilt.

"Right. I uh met up with him recently. Did he ever get that mold project done?"

"Yes. He got a B plus. No thanks to you, but it was years ago. It really doesn't matter." Tori reached forward, curling her fingers over Courtney's arm. She turned her gaze into Courtney's stern eyes.

"It matters to me. Listen…" She withdrew her hand and took a deep breath. "I've been a terrible friend to you, I know. We did everything together growing up, so leaving you behind when I went to Hollywood Arts-that wasn't me. That wasn't something I do, not something I should have done to you, and I'm sorry." Courtney closed her eyes and lowered her arms, exhaling softly. "I know it'll take some time to make it up to you, but please, we were best friends…give me a chance to start over?"

They met a year after their elder siblings did. Sinjin and Trina met at the age of ten, and would often spend time with each other. At that age, Tori was eight, and often clung to her sister, so she was always trying to follow her around. Trina and Sinjin would often go to a park and play with a ball, or run around the park, and one day when Tori convinced Trina to let her tag along-Courtney happened to do the same with Sinjin. It was a blessing for their elder siblings, because it meant Tori and Courtney spent time together on the playground while they did whatever they wanted.

They were inseparable after that, and even tried to take the same classes together when they went to junior high. "I know I hurt you, Courtney…"

"You were stupid, selfish, arrogant, and became one of those vain people we always made fun of at Sherwood. But whatever." Tori leaned back as Courtney pulled away and walked towards Choco. She was thrown off by the lackluster tone in Courtney's voice. What did this mean?

"That's all you have to say? I spill all that, and all you have to say is 'whatever'?"

"What do you want from me?" Courtney grabbed a short hair dog brush from her end table and sat with Choco. "You know where you went wrong. Unless you've become a masochist too, you don't need me to trash you. Believe me, I did enough of that for the first year after you blew me off for those selfish pricks." Tori watched Courtney run the brush smoothly along her dog's fur, brushing first against the grain. "What do you want to hear? Do you want to hear that Trina and Sinjin had to keep me from kicking your ass? You clearly feel bad enough. How many times have I called and you told me you were busy with a poker game with those people, or busy writing some song you were going to sing for your entire school? Hm? I don't need to bring up all those times. If you genuinely want to be friends again, then fine, I'll give you another chance. It isn't as if all the stuff we did together was for nothing. You were one of the best friends I've ever had, so maybe if you're willing to work on it with me, we can get close to that point again." Courtney shrugged and curled her lip into a subtle smirk. "Besides, it's as you said, our siblings are getting married, now we're practically family: we may as well get started on fixing what's broken."

Her heart lifted and she sat beside Courtney's dog, moving her hand in front of the puppy's snout. Choco licked her hand, causing a shiver to rush up Tori's arm. "It's good to know you're not fake. I'm sorry that I was…"

"I have no reason not to be real with you. You know that. You don't either, and you're right, that person you became at Hollywood Arts? That's not you. You?" Courtney pointed to the microscope and smirked. "That's you. What do you want out of life? You wanted to be a biologist, last I checked, preferably a veterinarian. Or has that changed? Want to be a fading pop star in ten to twenty years?"

"No…I still want what I wanted then. I've got a problem though…My friends influenced me negatively and I'm actually failing science." Tori clenched her eyes shut and froze, preparing to hear Courtney shout at her. When it did not come, she opened her eyes and saw her friend staring calmly at her with an arched eyebrow.

"How the hell are you failing science? That's your subject."

"My friends distract me a lot with the whole acting and singing thing. Even last night they were insisting that I play poker with them and wouldn't let me study."

"And you put up with that?!"

"What? No! Well…" Tori leaned to the right and groaned. "I'm noticing a few things, though. I was hoping also for some help from you. Ideas…" Courtney leaned against her headboard against the wall and folded her hands over her abdomen.

"Talk to me."

"They don't respect my family. They make fun of Trina, mock my mom and accuse my dad of being distant. They've done things to hurt them, like putting my sister in the hospital. Accidental or not, they've done things that really…I just need to know which of them actually give a shit about me. I need them to learn to respect my family too, maybe if they see what my family goes through, they'll understand, but I don't know…"

"I see your issue. You know, a good way to test how much a person knows you is to see how much they pay attention. If they care enough to pay attention to you, they'll know certain things you've told them. So that's one thing to do, you could test them on that. It's one way to see who's real and who's bullshitting you. I mean, a good friend doesn't have to know everything about you, they should have at least picked up on a few of the basic things. If they know absolutely nothing about you, that's an issue. Maybe make them spend time with your family. If they care enough about you, they'll do it. A good friend accepts you no matter what and they accept your family, if they can't accept you for who you are, then they are nothing."

"Yeah…" She took a deep breath and looked towards the door. "You know, they don't think Trina's got talent. She's a fucking athlete and they refuse to think that is a skill. It's like they think talent stops at acting, singing and dancing." Courtney scoffed and waved her hand in the air.

"Please, Trina's able to do things I can't do, like full splits. Wasn't she a gymnast?"

"Yeah, she did gym and ran track."

"Put those fools in a race against her and see if they respect her after that. I can almost guarantee you when she wipes the floor with them, they'll regret saying she's got no talent."

Tori rubbed her chin and curved the corner of her lip into a smirk. "Good point. That's definitely something to consider…How long till lunch, do you think?"

"Probably a few more minutes."

"All right. Let's see what we can come up with until then."

"Sounds good to me." It was good to have Courtney's friendship back, though she was well aware Courtney would be watching her closely. She wouldn't let her down though. She honestly cared about her friend and would not be turning away from her again.

* * *

Courtney seems to be a good friend.


	4. Family Meeting

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 4 (Family Meeting)

Tori walked into the living room after calling for a family meeting. Holly and Trina were seated on the couch while David was in his recliner. She studied them to make sure they were ready for what she had to say. They were all relaxed in position. Trina had her legs up on the couch, tucked inwards, and her left arm flat on the top of the couch, running behind Holly. Holly was sitting comfortably into the chair, looking up to Tori with a soft smile, and David had both his arms stretched out on the armrest. The footrest was up and he had a slight recline. "Good, you're all comfortable and relaxed."

"Well you did say to get comfortable," David joked. Tori scratched at her neck and absently tapped her fingers on her belt. She definitely wanted her dad comfortable, especially since some of the things she had to say might throw him over the edge. He didn't exactly know _everything_ that had been going on with her friends, and the fact that they didn't take him seriously when it came to his daughters was something she knew was going to cause friction regardless of how she told him. "I hope that doesn't mean you have any bad news, such as you failing _another_ subject."

She lifted her hand and exhaled slowly. "It's all relative, daddy." If anyone in this family was hard to please, it was him. Trina was only difficult because she not only took after him, but Tori was half positive that he favored Trina. They were both athletic, played some sort of sports in high school, a were into the same career path, and he'd been protective of Trina except for times when he was so highly stressed out that his judgment had been clouded. "I just have a few things I want to say to you three. First, I love you-"

"Yep it's going to be bad," Holly laughed. Tori pushed back a snicker and moved her hand to her chest as she cleared her throat.

"It's not bad-not all bad anyway. Some things might piss you off." She swept her bangs away from her forehead and smiled sheepishly. Trina pat her palm on the sofa and looked off to the side.

"That's an amazing sales pitch, sis." Tori rolled her eyes and laughed. "You'd totally make it as a car salesperson." Trina's lip curved into a deep smirk and her eyelids fell halfway. "Seriously. Have you considered career change?"

Tori moved her hand to her stomach, laughing out her nerves. "Stop teasing! This is serious." Trina's smirk increased, pushing her skin upwards some as her eyebrows wagged.

"Oh I agree little sis, family meetings are always important, but it wouldn't be right if we didn't tease you a little." Trina flipped her hair over her shoulder and locked eyes with Tori. "So all joking aside, let's get serious. What do you want to discuss?" Tori was a lot calmer now than she was minutes ago, oddly enough. Perhaps the joking with the family lightened things for her.

The tension in the room grew heavy once more, but Tori wasn't put off by it. She pat her palms together and closed her eyes. "First I really just want to apologize. I haven't been a good daughter or sister, and I let my friends influence how I act around my family. I'm sorry." She sniffed and opened her eyes. She felt a tear forming in her eyes and was quick to sweep it away. "I love you. Mom, Dad, Trina, you guys are the most important people to me, and I haven't even shown it."

Holly put her hand to her chest and smiled warmly at her, "Oh honey it's okay. You're our daughter, we're always going to love you no matter what."

"True." Trina uncurled her legs and sat up straight. "I know I always give you a hard time, but that's what sisters do." Tori chuckled softly and furrowed her brow as she gazed somberly at her forgiving family.

"The thing is, I guess I was always looking for approval." Her heart pounded heavily against her ribs and her body temperature began to rise. "Before Hollywood Arts, singing was just something I liked to do in the shower-and it still is just a hobby. Before HA, Trina was the successful one, and Dad, you were always busy with something-more so than you are _now_, and Mom? Well…yeah you weren't around as much either." Holly shifted uncomfortably, but kept her loving gaze onto her daughter. "I wanted so much to know that you guys were proud of me, that I could have that approval, and when I went to Hollywood Arts, there were people that were. Just…maybe the wrong type of people."

"Tori," Her father's deep voice soothed her rising nerves and pulled her gaze towards him. "We will always love you and will always be proud of you. We're only disappointed that you were failing science-a subject that you had a deep love and passion for. You've always had a talent for intellect. That's not what matters most to us, what matters is that you're a part of this family and we will _always_ want you around." Her lips curved upwards and she slowly nodded. "Just like we will always want Trina around-maybe we don't say things enough that we need to, maybe we show things the wrong way, but we're not perfect. We may not approve of everything you do with your life, but don't think that means we're any less proud of you."

"Thanks, daddy…" She took a deep breath and glanced to the kitchen table where her textbook was. Of course she saw how much her family was there, how much they loved and approved of some of the things she did. She was growing up now, enough to realize that the most important people in her life would be her family. "I see that now, of course. I know I put my trust in the wrong people, looking to those friends of mine for acceptance."

She watched as Trina stood up and walked over to her. Her sister caught her off guard and pulled her into a tight hug. "You look like you need a hug from your big sister," Trina said lightly, "Now quit worrying about feeling accepted or not." Trina leaned back and Tori felt as her hand slid to her shoulders. She locked eyes with Trina's tender gaze and started to smile. "Look Tori, I know what it's like to feel like your left out. When Dad was so busy and mom had that affair, you weren't the only one feeling the strains of this family drama for those couple of years. They got through their stuff, and we all moved on together. That's the way it works, Tori. As for acceptance by friends, you know Courtney always has, right?"

"I know. I hear what you're saying and I know how Courney feels. but it's no excuse." Tori pulled away and crossed her arms. "I was harsh on all of you. The things I said, the way I acted-and towards you Trina! I shouldn't have let my friends talk to you the way they did. I know I was just scared of their rejecting me if I did, but that isn't an excuse, and I'm sorry…I know I hurt you…"

"Yeah." Trina lowered her arms and shrugged her shoulders. "But like Mom's affair and Dad's busy schedule, that's in the past. Right?"

"Right. I'm going to focus on what's important, but now I want to know whether my friends value my friendship enough to try and respect me and to respect you. Family is the most important thing to me, they need to respect all of you." She folded her arms and paced to the right. "First I've got a few questions that I'm going to ask them for sake of seeing how much they bothered to pay attention to me over the years-then I want to put them through some things to see if I can at least get them to respect you three more."

"They don't respect me?" David asked while raising an eyebrow. His face fell flat and his eyes narrowed. This was the part Tori worried about. "I'm a high ranking officer of the law that would probably knock anyone over the head that would mess with one of my family. You're telling me they don't respect me?"

"Dad, they're afraid of you but they don't take you seriously." David twitched as Holly and Trina slowly looked to the man, opting to remain silent. His voice rose slightly and his fingers gradually closed into his palm.

"Do they not realize all the shit I've let them get away with over the years! Things that they should be thrown in jail-having nearly killed the both of you on different occasions."

"That may just be it, Dad. You've let them get away with stuff, they think they can get away with anything-even lying to you." He began fuming, all rationality that he held moments ago was fleeting and being replaced with a great anger. At this point, she was just winding him up. "Dad, they've put hands on us, you know that. You remember the puppet thing with Trina and the guys, you know one of them cut that wire and put Trina in the hospital, not to mention that Robbie himself has stalked us in the past. There's many things they did to all of us. I mean, why did you even let them get away with so much?"

"They were your friends, and I suspected they had more sense in their heads to disrespect your father-especially when I could put them away just that easily."

"Okay, well Trina nearly broke her neck thanks to one of them, I know I keep repeating that-but it's just one thing that they did. Another thing, they _lied_ to _you_ daddy. Maybe on multiple occasions, but they lied. That one time with the puppets? There were three men in the house with your daughter, and they lied to you about what they were doing to her…and who did you believe?"

"Thanks for the reminder." David grumbled and crossed his arms, glaring at the disappointed look his wife was giving him. "I was under a lot of pressure that day. It's no excuse, but…" He growled and Trina moved behind him and began to massage his shoulders.

"Relax, Dad. It's okay."

"It is _not_ okay!" David shot up and stomped his foot on the ground. "I'm your goddamn father, and they should respect that, much less not come under my roof and lie in front of my face about what they're doing to one of you."

"They also mock mom all the time," Tori remarked. Holly's eyebrow rose and David's jaw locked firmly in place. "They think you're lazy, Mom. They don't know how hard you work, and they still think all you do is text other men."

"And _whose_ business is that?" Holly snapped. "Since when did they get so involved in our family, Tori dear?" Tori's shoulders fell and she took a slight step back. She was afraid her parents were about to explode. A vein was popping out of her father's neck, his chest was heaving and his eyes were wild with anger. Holly's eyes were narrow, her scowl lines were forming around her lips, and her right hand was clutching tightly on her coffee mug.

"They don't respect this family, that's why I want to teach them to. So I was thinking…maybe I could show them Trina's got talent, show them how hard you work, Mom-"

"You could always get them to volunteer at the Mission," Holly smirked. "Have them come in on a Saturday, I would be more than happy to show them how hard it is being a nurse and constantly on call!"

"Okay…" She looked to David and inhaled sharply. "And dad, you need to show them how serious they should take you. It's one thing to disrespect a man's family, still bad, and to put them in the hospital or assault them, but to lie to and disrespect a _cop _and his family? That's a whole new ballpark of wrong. I don't want to do anything to hurt them, but they need to learn that if they're going to be my friend, they need to respect everyone in my family…"

"All right," David cracked his neck to the right and slowly sat down, "I'll see what I can do. I'll try talking to their parents as well." She could see it in her family's eyes, they each were already formulating their own lessons for the friends. She knew her father's lesson would be rough, so maybe it was best to save him for last.

"Before I put them through to spending time with each of you guys-because to respect you they actually have to learn some things about you-I'm going to see which of them actually value my friendship enough to _try._ If they don't, then I'm done…I'm going to ask them to spend time with you three, and they will have to in order to show me they're serious about making an effort."

"Sounds fair to me," Trina smirked, "I think you've got all of us in on this."

"Great! Because Courtney's also helping-she's coming up with some questions for me to ask them…Questions that friends should know…"

"We will do whatever you need us to do, _so long as_ you are making a valiant effort to study for your science class."

"I will." Tori was getting help with her studies from Courtney, thankfully, and Courtney was going to attempt to talk to Ian for her. The two had a class together at Sherwood-which Courtney once left to try and attend Hollywood Arts to be around Tori-but left HA when she saw how attached she was to her friends. Assuming Courtney could convince Ian to help study, that would be even better, since Ian was helping to tutor other students. "I'm not going to neglect my studies, I promise. I'll even find a way to make this into one of my research studies." A devious grin formed at her lips.

She was happy to see all her family on the same page, though she was a little uncertain how she was going to convince her friends to respect her family. The thing of it was, friends were not supposed to do the things that they did. Don't lie to a friend's father, don't constantly mock the activities of a friend's mother behind their back, and certainly don't cull out and abuse a friend's sibling.

There was a lesson they had to learn that Mr. Sikowitz would not be able to teach, and they were going to learn it.

"Is there anything else?" Holly inquired. "I need to get started with dinner, and I think you should start studying for the day."

"I think that's all, Momma. I'll get to studying, and as for ideas on making my friends spend some time with you guys-"

"We'll think of something," Trina suggested, "I can already tell you, I'm interested in showing them just how athletic I am-let's see if they can keep up with me. They talk the talk, I want to see them walk the walk. Maybe do a little sparring afterwards. I'm all about continued performance, don't let the body rest too much or else your muscles just won't grow."

"Sounds good to me." Tori walked to the table where her textbook was. She was grateful the teacher offered her ample extra credit assignments to do. If she was lucky and worked hard enough, she could at least make a B average in Science by the end of her senior year.

* * *

So the wheels are in motion, and it looks like the family wasn't too happy to hear they weren't taken seriously. Vega especially, it is one thing to lie to a man, it's another to disrespect a girl's father, but it's a whole other ballgame to endanger the lives of a cop's daughter, disrespect a cop's family, and lie to a police officer. Holly and Trina will probably be a bit easier on the friends.


	5. Reconnecting with Old Friends

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 5 (Reconnecting with Old Friends)

A text message guided Tori to a small café near the Sherwood high school, she was confused by Courtney's words that instructed her look ready to meet someone. She wouldn't say who. When she entered the shop, she saw Courtney at a table waving her hand in the air.

She was quick on her feet and walking fast towards the table, only slowing when she saw the person sitting across from the girl. His sandy brown hair flowed like waves onto his broad shoulders, like that of a lion's mane. "Ian," his name fell from her lips in a breathless pant. The man turned his head over his shoulders, peering at her with a sharpened gaze and a firm jawline.

"Tori, come sit down," instructed her blonde friend. Immediately upon making eye contact with Ian, her nerves paralyzed her. Her eyes trailed along Ian's thin body structure. He was tall and lean, and not the most attractive man in the room, but she couldn't help herself to be pulled in the way she was when she met him the other day or when they shared the same science project years ago.

His lips moved, but in her loss of focus, she couldn't quite make out what he was saying. Courtney rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, jolting Tori out of her semi-trancelike state. "Courtney says you're failing science?" Ian's bushy eyebrows curled upwards and his lips dipped down in disappointment. His voice ensnared her like that of a melodic tune. "I never thought I'd see the day. Is it because you don't know the material? It can't be that, surely."

"No." She stumbled forward, catching herself before sitting down beside Courtney. Ian folded his hands over on the surface of the table. His eyebrows flattened down as she attempted to regain her composure. "I understand the material just fine, it's only that I've neglected it." Her left hand stroked her hair while her eyes dipped down to Ian's long, curved fingers. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with me."

"I don't want anything to do with the starlet. Courtney says you're back to your old self, or at least, trying to be. The only reason I turned you away the last time we talked was because you weren't who you are." Tori tucked her hair back over her ear and pressed her lips together, absorbing his words to the fullest capability. "You know? I liked you back when you were being yourself and not busy trying to gain anyone else's approval-you didn't care what others thought of you and you wouldn't compromise your own morals and beliefs for anyone." Ian's shoulders fell with a breath. He reached for the coffee cup beside him and brought it up to his lips. "Courtney being in my class every now and then, I've kept in touch with her and she'd tell me what you were doing. Letting someone mistreat you, your family, trying to be this big pop star diva adored by everybody in the world-someone who was trying so damn hard to be _perfect_…"

His words struck her hard, drawing tears from her eyes. She took a deep breath and chose to remain silent so he could get everything out. Ian set the cup down and leaned back in the chair. "That wasn't you. You weren't the type of person to just stick me with an unfinished project or turn your backs on your friends-and certainly you would never let someone talk smack about your family. The least you could have done was finish out the damn school year at Sherwood before transferring out-but you forgot who your friends were for those other people. Tell me, do you know who in that group of friends is real?"

"I don't, that's why Courtney and I are going to find out."

"Here's another question." Ian leaned against the wall, folding his right elbow on the table and putting his left arm along the top of his booth. "Would those friends of yours be accepting of your old friends? Like Courtney, or even myself? I know from what I've heard Courtney tell me, those friends mock her brother all the time. Sinjin's a teacher's assistant, isn't he?" Ian looked to Courtney for the answer, and she confirmed his question. "Right. So how do your friends treat him?"

"Like he's a failure because he's too old to still be in school."

"And the dude is about to be your brother-in-law. Do you stick up for him? The Tori I knew back at Sherwood would have." Tori closed her eyes and dipped her head down. Ian leaned over the table, his intense gaze she could feel practically baring into her soul. "You asked me why I didn't want to go out with you. I wanted to ask you out back at Sherwood, after the project was finished a movie was supposed to be coming out and I wanted to ask you if you'd like to see it with me. You were gone by then, obviously. Then you changed into this pseudo diva person dependent on everybody else accepting you and adoring you." Her body trembled and her heart sank as she realized all he was saying. It made sense, it was accurate, and above all, it was true. "At Sherwood, you had your identity, you knew who you were and what you wanted out of life, and you weren't going to be so quick to change. Strong, like your sister, dependent only on yourself…you weren't afraid to speak your mind, to stand your ground and defend those you care about." Ian snapped his fingers and leaned back, sliding his hands smoothly along the table. "That's the person I was attracted to back then. What happened to that person? Where did _she _go? I would love to go out with you, but who would I be taking out on a date? Sherwood Tori Vega, who valued her friends _and _her family, caring more for everyone else around her than herself…or Diva Tori, stuck up and concerned more with appearances and approval from friends, willing to let people stomp all over her family and even go so far as to use her? That's the thing."

"I…" He liked her back then? The news hit her with tremendous force. Why had he not said anything? Why didn't she stick through that project?

"Furthermore, what have they done for you? Courtney tells me how much you do for them, but do they do anything for you?" He reached for a menu and furrowed his brow at her. "And I don't mean the surface level stuff-like helping you study and all that, I mean the deeper stuff. Did they care for you when you were going through hard times? Did they help your sister or comfort her when she was in the hospital? How about your dad? Do they respect him? He is a pretty powerful guy, isn't he? I know your mom and dad had some issues-don't know what-but apparently it caused some friction for your family. Did your friends help you through it?"

"Not really…"

"Didn't think so. So, you've become shallow, you're friends with the shallow crowd."

"Yes, but I'm working on it now. They're going to have to prove themselves to me, Ian. I'm not going to be friends with people who don't care about me or about my family-or even friends. So yes-they would have to accept you and Courtney, they'd have to respect Sinjin more than they do. There's no question about it. I'm not letting them walk over me anymore."

"How much do you want their approval?"

"I don't, I don't need anyone's approval. Not theirs, not-don't take this the wrong way-yours either." Ian's lip tucked into a smirk as she shot him an apologetic look. "I appreciate everyone has their own opinions, but if they can't respect the people in my life or the things I want to do with my life-then they're not needed." Her chest heaved and determination swelled in her gaze. Courtney's eyes lit up with joy and Ian's smirk turned to a confident smile.

"And _there's_ the Tori I remember. All I'm saying, and all I want to see-which is what Courtney says she wants too-is for you to be true to who you are. Don't change yourself for someone, Tori. If you want to be a singer, fine, go for it, you have my support and hopefully your family. If you want to go into science, go for it. You should do what you think is best for yourself, not what everyone else wants."

"What do I want? You know what I want? Respect. I want to be treated with respect, I want my family treated with respect. I want to go into veterinary sciences, or maybe even be a marine biologist. Singing is and always has been a hobby for me, but it's not the _career_ I want. Hell, the thought of fame scares me." Tori leaned forward, her eyebrows lifting up and her eyes widening. "You know celebrities have no privacy whatsoever, right? They can't even go out on a date without the entire world knowing about it!"

"They can't even change clothes," Courtney snickered. The girl was looking at her cell phone and flashing a grin at the two. "Just saying, apparently Selena Gomez went to a party wearing a-"

"Thanks for proving my point, Court…" Her voice fell flat and Courtney tucked her phone away. The girl laughed and Ian smiled.

"You're welcome." Courtney clapped her hands together and looked over her shoulder excitedly. "So if we're all friends again, can we get some food? I'm starving!" Tori nodded and felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She removed it and frowned at a message from Andre, asking if she wanted to listen to a song of his. Courtney leaned into her and glanced at the phone while Ian merely bounced his head upwards and jerked a finger towards the device.

"Who's texting?"

"It's Andre." Tori replied to the text, telling him that she was hanging out with a couple friends of hers and couldn't talk. "I'm letting him know I'm busy." An idea came to her head and she quickly flipped over to the camera on her phone. Courtney's eyes widened and Ian's right eyebrow lifted up. "One thing I want to do." She motioned for Ian to come over to her booth. "Quick, just for a second."

"What are you plotting?"

"Come on, come on, I'm checking in here on Facebook. I want to take a photo with you guys." Courtney moaned slightly while Ian moved over to their booth.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" The blonde asked. "Your friends will obviously see you hanging out with us." Courtney and Ian leaned in as Tori extended the phone and smiled into the camera.

"I thought we established already, I don't care? Let them know who I'm with, if they have a problem with it, then that's their issue." She was perfectly happy being with Courtney and Ian, and if her friends couldn't see that, then they'd just have to deal. Besides, they didn't have to be her only friends, she was allowed to have others.

After snapping the picture, she uploaded it instantly onto Facebook with the tag of hanging out with two friends. She tagged Courtney and Ian-who miraculously was still on her friends list after all these years, much to her surprise, then put away the phone.

"Ian, I have a question for you."

"What?"

"Would you still turn me down if I said I wanted to go out on a date with you?" He scratched his chin and slowly cocked his lips into a cool smirk. His eyes closed and his shoulders lifted up.

"I'll think about it." That was _not_ the answer she was expecting, but at the very least, it gave her a sense of hope that maybe he would ask her out. "Let's just enjoy our reunion, I guess. Then, maybe we can see why you're having trouble in Science."

"So you're going to tutor me?"

"Yeah, I'll help you study." She nearly fell out of her seat at that. She was pleased to hear he would actually help her. "You bring your textbook with you?"

"Yeah, it's in my car with my assignments."

"All right." He took a sip of his coffee and breathed in slowly. "Go grab it and we'll see where you're at."

"Yes! Okay, thanks!" She flinched, embarrassed by her overly-energized response. When she saw him smile, her cheeks grew bright red. Without another word, she hurried out to retrieve her book from the car.

* * *

Well that's a bit of good news. Now give me your input if you will, hopefully you enjoyed that chapter as the next will begin the trials.


	6. Probationary Period Begins

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 6 (Probationary Period Begins)

After lunch, they moved to Tori's home to continue their studying there. Tori was currently going over periodic elements with Ian and Courtney, but struggling to remember them. This was simple stuff that she _should_ know, and yet, she was so out of touch that she'd forgotten. "Come on Tori, you got this," Courtney pepped her up as Ian studied his flash cards. "The Actinide elements, what are they. You _know_ these."

Tori beat her hand against her right temple, groaning as she struggled to recall them. Courtney reached over, moving her wrist away. Ian shuffled the flash cards on the table then lifted them up, showing only the abbreviated letters. "Tori, you named every other element from memory, you know these. I know you know these, it's basic chemistry. Remember the element Uranium is a part of this family."

With that a light went off in her head and she leaned upright, brimming with confidence. "Uranium, Neptunium Plutonium, Americium, Actinium, Thorium, Protactinium, Curium, Berkelium, Californium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium, and I think Nobelium." Courtney applauded and Ian folded the cards onto the table, looking at her with pride. She didn't necessarily name the elements in order of atomic number, but the thing was, she knew what their numbers were.

"Now on the subject, explain to me what a polyatomic or molecular ion is." Tori flung her hair over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes with a determined confidence. It was all coming back to her.

"Polyatomic ions are composed of multiple atoms that are covalently bonded or a metal complex that can be considered as one single unit. Poly means many, so that is where the name comes from. A hydroxide ion is polyatomic because it consists of one atom from the element oxygen and one atom of hydrogen. Hydroxide has a negative one charge. Polyatomic ions can be useful in acid-base chemistry, or in salt formations and is often considered to be a conjugate acid or base of a neutral molecule."

Ian chuckled as Courtney clapped again and nudged him, "She's back, Ian." Tori arched her back, pushing her chest forward with pride as she swept her hand through her hair and flashed a toothy smirk. "Can we see what she remembers of Biology? Like the Coriolis Effect?"

"Could, but I think it'd be better if we help her study for what she needs to pass her class with flying colors."

"I agree with Ian." Tori knew what the coriolis effect was anyway. It was all about the wind patterns and how they moved on the earth hemispheres. "I really need to focus my studies here." She needed harder material so she could understand it. If she understood the hard stuff, the easy stuff should be a cinch.

Unfortunately, before they could move on, the front door flew open and Tori's boisterous friends came charging in. "There she is!" Jade exclaimed with a subtle smirk and narrow eyes. Tori bared her teeth and shut her eyes.

"Not _now_, you guys."

"No. We're doing this now." Tori opened her eyes to see Ian lean back in the chair and cross his arms across his chest. Courtney frowned at her and shifted her eyes over to the others. "We're staging an intervention." She put her hand to her forehead and moaned lightly. "You're supposed to be studying, so you blow us off, then the next thing I know you're checking in at some café, hanging out with a couple of nerds!" Ian raised his eyebrows and Tori slid her hand down her face.

"So you're staging an intervention? You are? _You_ are?" Her voice began to rise, causing her friends to shrink back. She hadn't wanted to do this yet, she was hoping to finish studying first and have this talk with her friends tomorrow. Now, however, they were playing her hand. She started to stand and raised up a finger. "First off, I am and have been studying-Ian here is tutoring me!"

"That's Ian?" Andre asked while looking at the man. Ian was remaining casual and nonchalant. "Isn't he that guy from Sherwood that you were doing that thing with a couple years ago when we met? He doesn't look as nerdy as he did back then."

"It wasn't a _thing_, it was a science project. Also, these are my friends. Courtney-Sinjin's sister, and Ian. And no, they're not nerds! Courtney is-or was-my best friend for many years."

Robbie shifted uncomfortably to the right and looked to Courtney and Ian with confusion, "Yeah but that was your life back at Sherwood, right? I mean, that was the past, not who you are now is it?"

"Robbie shut up," Cat whined.

"It is who I am." Tori took a step forward, narrowing her eyes at her friends and their little attempt at 'intervention'. "You know, I was holding off on this another day, but if you want to do this, we're doing this now. Sit down." She pointed to the couch, watching as all her friends exchanged confused looks and muttered amongst each other. "I said sit! I'm sick and tired of dealing with you people, so sit your asses down, all of you! I don't care if you have to sit on the floor, do it!" Without hesitation, they all sat either on the couch, the recliner, or in Robbie's and Cat's case, the floor in front of the couch.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" Beck joked. His joke earned a glare from Ian, and a scowl from Tori. This glare caused him to slouch into the couch, muttering to himself. Courtney removed a small manila folder from her bag and Tori reached out to grab it. "What is that?"

"Let's call it a test, shall we?" She unfastened the clip and started to pull out the document of questions Courtney had out. She was going to explain things first, however. She grabbed her pen and notebook from the table, then moved in front of her confused friends. "A very important test, for you and for me…but I'm going to explain what's about to happen before we delve into this."

"I told you guys she was mad at us!" Cat exclaimed. "I told you to stop bugging her and let her study."

"She's not studying!" Jade pointed to Ian and Courtney, "She's hanging out with friends. Which apparently aren't we haven't met."

"You met me," Courtney muttered. Tori held her hand up and the room grew dense and silent. Tori cracked her neck to the right and tapped her foot impatiently on the floor.

"You're right Cat, I am mad at you guys. _All _of you." Cat squirmed and sank momentarily while Jade simply looked away with a scoff. "You're disrespectful, rude, and have no sense of concern or empathy for me or for my family. You haven't shown me that you value my friendship at all."

"That's not true," Andre remarked, "Of course we care about you."

"Uh huh. What about my sister? Mom and Dad? My friends? You don't respect them, and by that regard, you don't respect me."

"What's the problem?" Beck raised an eyebrow and lifted his hands. "We're your friend, not theirs, so who really cares?"

"I do! I will not be friends with someone who cannot respect my family!" She leaned inwards and narrowed her eyes. "I've been putting up with you people for years now, and finally I've decided to speak my mind. You treat my family like shit, therefore you treat me like shit-"

"We do not!" Jade screamed. "We treat you just f-" Tori yelled louder and pointed an accusing finger at Jade.

"You shut up little miss blood thief!" Jade silenced and her eyes grew wide as her hand moved to her chest. "Didn't think I'd find out about that, did you? Do you realize I could have fucking _died_ from all that blood loss? Do you even give a shit?"

"I didn't know the nurse would keep drawing."

"You clearly did! That's why you kept doing it! Over and over again!" Jade slouched and crossed her arms. Her lips turned to a snarl. "I am in control here, not you-or any of you for that matter." Her angry eyes flew to Andre and Robbie, who instantly cringed under her venomous glare. "I don't know which of you was responsible for putting my sister in the hospital either-when that cord was broken-she nearly snapped her neck." She lifted a hand, holding her fingers centimeters apart. "So somebody was this close to having a murder charge. Andre, you displayed how much you care about my family by how concerned you were over my sister during that time."

"Thank you Tori," Andre smiled. Tori raised an eyebrow while the others all looked at him as if he was suddenly the biggest idiot in the room.

"Andre. All you cared about was whether or not your fucking date thought you were going to blow her off." He paled as Tori took a dangerous step towards him. "You know how many times I wanted to hit you that day? I still do. I know my sister would love to. So would Dad." She leaned back and began to pace. "So I've set up a few _tests_ to see which of you actually gives a shit about my family and who will actually put forth an effort to respect them."

"And what would you have us do?" Jade scoffed.

"Well for one, if you want to prove to me that you give a damn, then I'm going to have you spend time with each. My sister, my mom, and my _dad."_ The friends were shocked. "In fact, I'm requiring this. Just telling you to respect them means nothing unless you actually get to know them and actually make an effort to _do it_…You're going to learn to treat my family with respect, or I am done with you."

"You can't possibly do that."

"I think she just did," Cat muttered. The groaning of her friends assured her that this was something they didn't want to do. She moved her hands to her hips and closed her eyes.

"If you don't want to do this, there's the door, you're free to leave." They started to get up, but stopped when they saw her lip curve into a smirk. "But if you leave that door, we're through. I will know you don't value my friendship because you're not willing to try and get to know my family. You walk out that door right now, don't expect to me to give you another chance. Right now, you're all on a probationary period…"

"But we do care about you," Cat gave her an innocent look, but Tori couldn't accept it right then. She removed the question set from the manila folder and peered down at it. Cat looked at the paperwork and shifted nervously. "That's the 'test'?"

"Yes. I'm going to gauge just how much you care about me by how much you've paid attention to me over the years. The questions I ask, I want to see who knows the answers." She pointed to Courtney. "Courtney wrote this, and I have to say, she got everything right. I added some stuff in from the more recent years, but it's all about my life and the things I've told you guys over the years-let's see which of you have been paying attention and actually value my friendship at all."

Jade crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "This is stupid. Why are _we_ getting the intervention-" Tori pointed the paperwork to the door and narrowed her eyes.

"There's the door, Jade. You can leave if you want-but you know the consequence." Jade flattened her lips together. Tori's gaze did not falter from Jade's. The longer she remained dominant, the weaker Jade's gaze looked. "I'm giving you a second chance. A chance to not only show me that you've paid attention to our friendship but that it means something to you and you're willing to try and respect my family-I'm giving you a chance where I just _might_ forgive the things you did to me, or my family-such as nearly killing me thanks to your blood stealing." Eventually Jade's gaze broke away from hers and she sat back down beside Beck.

"Fine, do whatever." Tori nodded and looked to the others, waiting for any of them to get up and leave. She was pleased when they didn't, but she wished they would have been more enthusiastic about this. Jade threw her hands up and lifted her eyebrows, "So what's first?"

"First? What's first in any friendship?" She crossed her arms and leaned her head back. "Honesty. Honesty is essential to trust, loyalty and the success of a friendship. So I'm going to start off expecting nothing but the truth from you. Answer honestly, any lies or omissions will only _hurt_ you. 'the truth will set you free'. You want to show me you value my friendship and actually want to keep it, be _completely honest with me."_'

"Got it," they replied with mild eye rolls.

"Okay. First thing to kick it off…what is the worst transgression you've done either to me or my family?" Everyone remained silent, all eyeing her with surprise. She looked back to Courtney and Ian, who were now busy reading the science textbook. She could tell they were listening, because they were occasionally glancing over. "Easy question. Beck, we will start off with you…the worst thing you've done either to me or my family."

Beck looked to the left and right, scoffing to himself. "I think I've done nothing wrong."

"No? Nothing?" He snapped his gaze over to her, frowning under her suspicion. "You've never put hands on my sister? You never called my mom a slut behind her back? You never _lied to my father?"_ His hair fell before his shady gaze. Beck crossed his arms over his chest and he slowly looked away as the others all eyed him with bewilderment. "I'm sorry Beck, but if you're not going to take this seriously, you can leave."

"It's not that, it's just-"

"Be honest with me, Beck. Don't think I might not already know. Trina, Mom, and Dad all went over this with me. Anything you people have done I already know, and anything I _don't_ know, I expect you to tell me. Got that? Again, you're all on probationary period here, I'm watching you very carefully…I want to see if it's possible for you to change your attitude around my family or not. So we're doing this. I'll ask you again, what is the worst transgression?"

"Fine! I did lie to your father, probably on multiple occasions. Like, there was that time your sister was spreading rumors, so I wanted to teach her a lesson-we came over to do that, she called your dad down, and we made fun of her and lied to your dad's face…" Beck shifted as Robbie and Andre bowed their heads. "We didn't think he'd take too kindly to us manhandling her the way we were doing, because it was scaring her…we were only doing it to teach her a lesson."

"Right." Tori leaned back and shook her head. She had to swallow her disgust and anger for the moment. "You're right, Dad would have thrown you out on your ass. If his judgment that day had been better, he would have, because Trina is his daughter and you messed with one of his daughters. Trina knew the wrong in what she had been doing, and acknowledged it. Thank you for being honest and telling me that…it is a start, but we've only just begun. Now, you have a lesson to learn. All of you."

* * *

Shit just got real. By the way, when I say I'm a realism guy, I mean it: One of the friends will be held legally accountable for their actions.


	7. Getting to Know You

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N: By the way a little easter egg, there are a couple cameo mentions here and there.

* * *

Chapter 7 (Getting to Know You)

"Okay. Andre, you did _what?"_ Tori was still on the honesty and transgressions, but Andre was the last person. Soon she would begin asking them the important questions and setting up times for them to deal with her family. What she just heard, everyone else was shocked, except for Beck, who had been oddly complacent.

"It was meant to be a prank, Beck's idea!" Beck rolled his eyes as Andre tried to defend himself. Tori saw the obvious deflection of responsibility and made note of it in her notebook. Her nostrils flared out and her muscles tensed angrily. Not only was this the first she was hearing of it, Trina never told anyone, and this incident was just a few months ago! "We just wanted to spook her, so we sent the text message saying you were in trouble. We were going to go to where she drove and we were just going to damage the engine so she would get stuck out there in the dark. We didn't know there was some sort of gang fight going on! Honest!"

"Hold on, Andre." Tori lowered the notebook and looked to the stairs. A crease shot out across her forehead and she called on her sister with a deep, bellowing voice. "Come down here please, Trina!" Within minutes the woman was making her way down the stairs.

"What's the problem, Tori?"

"Andre says they did a prank on you and you got caught in the middle of some gang fight." Trina raised an eyebrow and studied Andre for a minute before snapping her fingers and pulling her phone from her pocket.

"Yes, that happened." She handed Tori the phone, showing the old text message. "I didn't tell anyone about it because I didn't know who did it and I didn't want to bother worrying anyone." She read the text out loud for the other friends to hear, and all of them were looking at Beck and Andre shamefully. It was sent from a phone that was unrecognized by Trina's contact list.

"Trina, it's me, Tori. Please help me, I'm stuck on the corner of 19th and Oak. I'm lost, it's dark, and I'm scared! My phone is dead and I'm using a stranger's cell, but it's unable to make calls." Tori lowered the phone and breathed out slowly, trying to gather it all in. "What happened when you went looking for me, Trina?"

"There was a small group of people, gangs, shooting off at one another. This man, tall and with dark brown hair, pulled me out of the line of fire. Said his name was Jesse or something. He pretty much kept me from getting shot." Tori's hand moved to her forehead and she exhaled once more while trying to keep her anger from flaring out uncontrollably.

"So because of the apparent 'kindness' of a gangster, my sister didn't end up on an extensive list of innocent bystanders killed due to gang violence." She clipped the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "That's all, Trina…I think I understand why you didn't want to tell me, or dad, but thanks. I'm glad you're okay…Good to see you're not scarred or anything."

"Scarred? No, I figured out it was one of your friends, so I'm used to being thrown into bad situations thanks to them."

"Right…" After a few seconds, Tori regained her composure and turned to Andre. "Andre, it's not looking good for you. The blatant disregard you have for my sister is one thing, but to put her in that situation? I don't know what to tell you. Tell me again that it was Beck's idea and I'm going to be mad. You people need to take responsibility for your actions. Even if someone else suggested it, you still did it. You and Beck, right now, I'm not sure if I even _want_ to give you two another chance. I mean, I want to, but forgiving the things you do to my family is hard…"

"Well what about Jade and the blood thing?"

Jade scowled at Andre and Tori closed her eyes, aggravated with how quickly Andre was trying to deflect his own guilt onto someone else. "That's a different person's separate crime. Yes, I'm pissed at Jade for it, and _really_ trying to get over that so I can give her another chance as well. At least she has taken responsibility for it." Jade did acknowledge her guilt and admitted to not realizing how bad it was; she wasn't well versed in medicine to know that Tori had been losing blood at a faster rate than her body could replenish. "Not to mention, she didn't try and place blame on someone else or distract with someone else's idiot move! And Andre, accepting blame for your own shortcomings is going to make me all that more forgiving-especially in matters concerning my family members!"

"All right, I'm sorry! Damn! I didn't know what was going to happen."

"Should not have done it in the first place…Either way, let's get onto these questions." She glanced at the first question on the page and waited as Courtney handed each friend a dry erase board and marker, which confused the friends. "I know it seems juvenile but I want to see what each of you have to say, and if someone says the answer out loud, then you're going to know it even if you don't."

"Don't you trust us?"

"To be honest? No. No I don't. First question-" The first question was obvious. Her birthday. She lowered the page and looked towards Courtney with a raised eyebrow. "They're not _that_ dense-I think, Courtney." Courtney lifted her shoulders and Tori turned back around, skipping over the question to read the second. "Color? What's my favorite color?" Her eyebrow lifted and Jade tossed the board onto her leg.

"This is stupid."

The remaining friends revealed their answer with Beck answering Blue, Andre suggested pink, Robbie asked about black, and Cat suggested red. "Okay, Black is my sister's favorite color, Robbie, not mine. Andre? Pink? Really? How many times have I said pink reminds me of pepto bismol?"

"I just guessed."

Cat lifted her hand and Tori glanced over, amazed that Cat was the one who got it right. Was it a stroke of luck, though? "Tori, I remember you're always writing with red markers, red gel pens. There was one time you kind of droned on about like this chemical that had a reddish tint. Also, when we met you said you liked my hair because it was red." The friends had bewildered expressions and Jade's mouth fell open. "So it's red, right?"

"Yes, Cat…"

"That has to be a fluke!" Jade commented. Cat stuck out her tongue and Tori silently shook her head.

"Next question. What is my biggest fear."

"I know this!" Cat immediately started writing, to which Jade followed suit as if trying to one up the girl. Beck, Andre, and Robbie were a tad slower in the process. When they revealed the answers, they were scattered all over the place. Cat answered losing her family while Jade answered water. Andre's answer was the dark, Robbie's was puppets, and Beck's was _fire_.

Upon seeing Beck's answer, Tori heard Courtney cackle. She turned around to her best friend, seeing Ian nudge the girl. Fire was the last thing Tori would ever be afraid of. That, and gas, she worked with both quite often in science classes. The Bunsen burner was her favorite tool.

"Seriously?" Beck muttered, "Am I really that far off? Robbie's the one that's got _puppets_ down, of all things."

"Yeah none of you three guys are right," Courtney dismissed them with the wave of her hand. Tori put her hands to her hips and looked between Cat and Jade. They were both around when she told them the story of the water park and why she wouldn't go with them. As a child, she went to a water park with her family and got lost from them, scared that she was all alone and abandoned, she searched for them and ended up falling into the deep end of a pool. Trina must have seen her before falling, because she was the one that pulled her out. "Cat and Jade, you two are both right. I'm terrified of losing my family, and terrified of water."

Jade and Cat nodded and Tori turned her glare onto the boys, who bowed their heads guiltily. "Which is something that if you understood, you wouldn't do the things you do to my family." She looked to the next question, reading the words out loud, then pausing. "Who was my first crush?" Her eyes flicked up from the page and she looked to Courtney and Ian. "Seriously Courtney?"

Courtney gestured to Ian. "It's not like he doesn't already know." A handsome smile flickered on Ian's face, sending a shiver down her spine and she instantly turned back to the friends. They each had a dull expression and their answers were revealed. Cat, Jade, Andre, Robbie answered Ian while Beck answered 'that guy'.

"Okay, we're going to move on." She ignored the blush forming and growled out the next question. "What do I want to be when I graduate college?" She studied her friends expressions and slowly folded her arms. She cupped the paper over her arm and lifted her eyebrows. "I know I've talked about it to all of you."

"I don't know this," Jade muttered. Tori hummed as Jade looked off to the side. "I mean I know you said what it was, I just can't remember." Andre flipped over his board first, saying Tori wanted to be a musician. Her brow furrowed and her lips pressed tightly together. Beck's answer was singer/actress. Jade snapped lightly and rubbed her "I _know_ it isn't that. Tori said it was just a hobby…"

Cat held up her board, proud of her answer. Tori rubbed her chin and smirked slightly at the word 'veterinarian'. "Tori loves animals, and I remember her saying this. Her best subjects are science and math, too."

"That was the next question, but yes Cat, that's right. I was also in the academic decathalon back in the eighth grade." Cat flashed a quick grin. Tori was impressed with the girl, and somewhat impressed with Jade. At least the others were trying, but she wanted to see more correct responses from them. "Come on, guys, if you don't know anything about me, how can I assume you care about me? How can I assume you give enough of a damn to try and show me any respect towards my family?" She shook her head and looked back to the questions. "Next, what does my mom do for a living?"

This time all of them, even Cat looked greatly confused. In Tori's defense, she never said much about what her mom's career was. "Okay guys, mom is a nurse. Just like Trina wants to be a cop like dad."

"And _that_ I didn't know," Beck muttered.

"You don't know a lot about my sister-"

"Yeah I always thought she screwed someone in order to get into Hollywood Arts." Tori flinched and listened to Courtney begin to seethe behind her. She narrowed her eyes at Beck and lifted up a finger.

"First thing you need to know about my sister. Talent isn't limited just to singing, dancing, acting-athleticism is a big talent and she's one of the top athletes at the college right now. She never 'screwed' anyone, and if she did, it would be the man she's getting married to you arrogant, self-centered _prick!"_ Beck's eyes widened and a collective gasp lifted from her friends. "Where athletic talent comes, she's got more talent in her fist than what you could pull out of your ass."

She rolled the paper up and scoffed. "Not to worry. Very soon you're all going to know my family like you've never known them before. If you aren't willing to respect them and if you can't-then I'm cutting you." Her eyelids slid open and her nostrils flared out. "I suggest not getting on my bad side…"

* * *

it seems obvious why she wants them to talk to her parents, she needs them to respect David and Holly as well, she values family and they are her family. Just be glad she doesn't have ten different siblings XD


	8. Racing the Sister

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N: I'm posting a tad early to announce that there are a total of 12 chapters-making four chapters that remain after this. When I post chapter 12, which should be in a few days or by the end of the week, I will pick up on "Forbidden Magic", which as some of you are aware, the prologue was posted to prepare you. It's something... different. I felt a personal challenge so I went back to my roots of supernatural XD. Anyway! Here's Chapter 8! Which, originally was combined with Chapter 9, but for sake of updates I'm not posting the two together like I sometimes do for two originally combined chapters

* * *

Chapter 8 (Racing the Sister)

The next morning, Tori led her friends out to Trina's college track field. Courtney walked beside her, reviewing the notes that they'd compiled thus far. When it came to the questioning of how much her friends knew about her, out of about one hundred different questions, Cat scored about 88, Jade scored about 87 -including the ones she thought were too stupid to do. Andre got 50 of them right, Robbie answered 42, and Beck scored only about 25. Granted each of them got exhausted after 60, making Tori wonder why she had so many questions to ask.

On the track, Sinjin was watching Trina in the grassy island the track bordered. She was sparring with one her fellow students in her martial arts class. Upon closer inspection, Cat was the first to recognize him. "Hey, isn't that Sikowitz's nephew, Jason?" The group started to admire the man, until they saw Trina roundhouse kick him in the back and send him into the ground. "Ouch!"

"He'll need an ice pack," Courtney muttered. As they walked up to Trina, Tori extended her arm and looked over her shoulder as her friends came to a halt. Trina gulped down her water bottle, then tossed it to the ground. Courtney looked over to Jason walking away and rubbing his lower back. "Is now a bad time, Trina? You're not tired out from sparring?"

"Tired?" Trina flicked her head back, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "That was my warm up spar. I still haven't jogged my mile." Trina spread her arms out, her chest rose with a deep inhale, and her eyes shot open at Tori's friends. "Welcome to my domain. The open air, smell of fresh sweat and grass, and the feel of the hot ground below your feet…This is what pure talent allows."

Andre raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "So you run track and field? You're also taking karate?"

"I am taking a semester of Tae Kwon Do, yes. I run track, and I'm on the school's Women's Baseball team-one of the few colleges that actually have it. Dad wanted me to sign up since he played baseball. I'm more devoted to track and martial arts though."

"So you're an athlete. I'm guessing that solves how you got into Hollywood Arts? Cool. What are we doing here?"

"Yep, and follow me…" Trina pointed to each friend and called them off individually. Tori and Courtney walked behind them, being guided towards the starting point of the track. "For years, you people have thought you were better than I am."

"Well you can't sing or dance," Jade pointed out.

Trina rolled her head to the side and lifted her shoulders, "Well as far as dancing goes, that's not entirely correct. Martial Arts and dancing do go hand hand, but I'm a martial artist, not a dancer, that doesn't mean I couldn't learn if I wanted to." Jade nodded and the others shrugged. "As far as singing goes? This is true. I'll admit to it, I _tried_ when I went to HA, but you're right, I'm not talented that way. I am, however, one of the top runners here." A devious smirk grew on the sister's face as she locked eyes with Tori's friends. "You're about to learn the hard way that talent isn't restricted to singing, dancing, or acting."

"Anyone can run," Beck rolled his eyes and Jade shrugged her shoulders. "Anyone can spar and do what you do."

"Oh? They can? Well then, if you can beat me-I'll admit that I am as 'talentless' as you claim. If not." Trina crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "You're going to start treating me with respect _and _acknowledge that there's someone that can do something _you_ can't."

The friends scoffed, but Cat was the one to shake her head at them. "I'm a swimmer, Trina." Trina's eyebrows rose and she gave the girl a thumbs-up. Her lips remained flat and her eyes dull and uninterested. "Trina, don't be mad at me because of them, okay? I know they're not great-which is kind of why I'm spending more and more time with Sam, my roommate, than them."

"You may not be involved," Tori reminded the redhead, "But silence is almost as bad as being a part of it. Accessory is still a criminal charge."

Robbie rolled his eyes and looked away muttering under his breath, "Give it a rest." Tori slowly turned her head to him and furrowed her brow. Her lips thinned and her eyes narrowed. When he glanced back at her, he flinched. "You heard that? Sorry…"

"Oh this is going to be fun to watch."

"Huh? What do we have to do?"

"Simple. Since you think it's so easy." Tori swept her hand through the air, tracing along the track field. Race Trina on the track field, you'll be running a mile-that's four laps. Each lap you'll take a break-" Trina groaned and Tori leaned her head back, sighing heavily. Trina was an advanced runner, able to run close to a six minute mile. Her fastest time was five minutes and three seconds. When she first started out, she took breaks between each lap, but now she was able to run a full mile without taking a break between laps. She would prefer to break after each mile or half-mile. "Trina, they're starters, none of them-except probably Andre-are athletic in any way. They will burn out without taking breaks." Trina folded her arms and spread her legs out to the sides. She leaned backwards and breathed in softly.

"I know that, I'm just raring to go. My adrenaline is pumping."

"Yeah." Tori looked back to her friends. "Each lap, we're going to be adding something. Mostly hurdles. Trina's not a gymnast, but she was as a kid, so she's pretty flexible. So…we'll be giving her challenges…"

"And us inadvertently," Beck replied in a dull tone. "Doesn't matter-"

"Are you seriously that arrogant right now, Beck?"

"What?"

She stared at him for a full minute and turned away. "Anyway. After you race, you will spar with Trina." When she saw the looks of fear on her friends, and a growing grin on Trina's face, she smirked. "Trina. _Try_ to go easy on them. We don't want them to end up like Jason over there."

"Oh he's fine!" Trina declared. "I didn't hit him _that_ hard. Now your friends…I'm making no promises." Tori chuckled as the others looked to Trina with wide eyes.

"She _really _doesn't like us," Andre remarked.

"Newsflash." Trina glared at them and narrowed her eyes as she mimicked one of their constant insults. "_Nobody_ likes you." With that, Tori and Courtney walked towards the nearby bleachers where Sinjin was sitting. He had an amused expression on his face and was leaning back with his elbows propped up on some higher bleachers.

"I cannot believe you are making them do this."

"Has to be done." Tori rolled her head to the side and watched as Trina and the friends moved into proper position. There were eight lanes, and Trina took the one closest to the grass. "This is probably the easiest thing they're going to do."

"Easy? This is a punishment!"

"It's a training exercise." She flipped her hair back and sat upright. Her hands gripped her knees and her eyes narrowed. "Sort of. This is a study to see if through testing they can change their attitudes." Sinjin's voice fell flat and his eyelids fell halfway.

"So you did turn this into some scientific research project."

"Half yes and half no. Yes I am turning them into lab rats, but no, because I want them to actually come out of this respecting my family and myself. If they don't come out with a new respect and attitude, then I'm done with them. For good." Her eyebrows lifted as she watched Trina go through her pre-stretches. "Dad's waiting for his chance. He's already spoken with Andre's grandmother, Beck's Dad, Robbie's parents, Jade's dad, and Cat's grandmother. His thing is the only one I actually feel slightly sorry for what I'm going to put them through…but it has to be done, they have to know there are consequences for their actions."

"And your mom?"

"Oh she's going to put them to work."

Jade's voice grabbed her attention, she was staring at Trina and shaking her head. "What are you doing, Trina? I thought we were running." Trina was standing on one leg, pulling her left leg behind her back.

"We are, but you need to stretch before you run."

"It's just a mile, right?"

"Yes."

Beck nodded and shrugged his shoulders, "Then it's nothing."

Trina moved her leg back to the ground and bounced on her heels. "Don't come crying to me when you pull a muscle, Beckett. I'd rather you not be injured _before_ we spar-I am really looking forward to that part…" Beck paled as Trina flashed a wide smirk. "Your only accessible skill might win you dates and the 'hope' of attracting a director's attention for some small time picture, but my skill is going to actually land me work."

"Trina," Cat took Trina's wrist and looked to the engagement ring. "Congrats on your engagement, by the way! I didn't know you were engaged…"

"Yes well, I didn't figure any of you people would care." Cat frowned and shot a glare at the other friends.

"I don't like being lumped with them, but…anyway, when did he propose?"

"Christmastime. We're getting married next month."

"We're not _all_ bad," Jade attempted to defend herself and separate herself from the boys as Cat was doing. Tori appreciated the effort, but she still didn't see what she wanted. "I mean I know we've done bad things, but…"

"Whatever, I'm ready to run. Are you guys going to stretch or not, because I couldn't really care if you do or not." Jade grumbled and Cat began to stretch her legs as Trina did. After a minute, Jade did the same.

Tori whipped out her stopwatch and looked over as Courtney prepared to take notes. "Courtney, would you write down the behaviors and how they're responding to my sister. When they run through the first lap, let's record their times."

"Sounds good to me."

"All right." Sinjin shouted out the countdown as the runners eyed the track in front of them. Trina slowly crouched down, putting her fingertips to the ground and stretching her leg behind her, preparing to push off with her right foot. Cat put her hair into a ponytail and jogged in place while Jade attempted to mimic Trina's pose.

When Sinjin counted off the _one_, Trina pushed off like a lightning bolt, startling the others. "Holy shit, go!" Beck screamed. The friends took off after her. Tori had to stop herself from laughing while watching the times

"Walk it off boys!" Trina called. She was advancing, which forced the others to try and pick up the pace. Distance began to grow between Jade and the others, but she was only in the middle of Trina and Cat, who was a few feet ahead of the boys. Andre was approximately three feet ahead of Beck, and Robbie was lagging behind.

It didn't take long before Robbie to scream out in pain, "My leg hurts!"

"Stop running and walk, Shapiro!" Trina was coming up behind Robbie, still not at the finish. "If you're hurting already, it's because you didn't stretch! Walk it off!"

Trina crossed the finish for the lap and stepped off onto the grass, throwing her fist into the air. Trina clocked her at forty-six seconds. Cat was closing the gap on Jade, who was panting heavily and showing signs of slowing, so the girls ended up crossing the stopping point at the same time. Tori had them clocked at sixty seconds even.

Beside the bleachers was a cooler. Trina grabbed two bottles of water and tossed them to the girls as they made their way over to them. "Drink up. Athletes need to drink a lot of water. The body uses up water when you sweat, so you have to stay hydrated."

"How long are we breaking for?" Jade asked as she collapsed onto the bleacher and took a quick drink of the water.

"Once the boys finish, approximately five minutes. Have any of you ever jumped a hurdle before?" Jade's eyes widened and Cat shook her head. "You're about to." She pointed to fellow classmates moving hurdles into the lanes. "If you feel you can't jump one, go around."

"I made it!" Andre called. "I fucking made it to the end!" Trina raised an eyebrow and Tori shook her head.

"One seventy eight seconds, Andre!"

"No!" Beck was next, finishing off at eighty-eight seconds. Robbie wound up walking, so Trina went in to help him out.

"What's the problem Shapiro." Trina looked him over and he pointed to his leg. "Pulled your hammy. You're not running the remaining laps. You're sitting out." Trina turned to the others and narrowed her eyes. "This! This is what happens when you do not stretch!"

With that, each of the remaining friends did as Trina instructed, looking to her for advice on how to properly stretch. She had to instruct, since they were not stretching in proper form. To their surprise, there _was _a proper method to stretching and not just half-assing it.

During the second lap, the times were relatively the same. Trina did not have any trouble with the hurdles, Jade had mild difficulty but still managed to come in around fifty-eight seconds. Cat had some difficulty, and came in around a minute and ten seconds. Beck didn't even try the hurdles and wound up coming in at eighty nine seconds. Andre came in around eight five seconds, but couldn't manage to jump any of the hurdles.

Robbie was sitting between Tori and Sinjin, massaging his leg as Trina instructed him to do. "Trina runs like she would have been in state championships or stuff," Robbie marveled. The friends, all standing around the cooler, were sipping on their bottles of water and watching Trina do some ending stretches.

"She came in second place at sectionals in her senior year. She was third in state, and ran at fifth place in nationals. Tell me that's not talent."

"That's pretty good," Jade muttered.

Beck took a sip of his drink and scoffed, "So she never came in first? All of us would be first in our skills." Jade narrowed her eyes and Cat answered in with nonchalance.

"I've seen better actors than you, Beck. Sam's old best friend, Carly? Sam herself, they had a webshow and were much better actors than you." Beck's jaw dropped and Trina moved over, instructing them to get ready for the third lap. They complained about their muscles burning, but Trina wasn't hearing it.

"When your muscles burn, that means you're working them, improving. What happens when your muscles burn? You don't stop, you keep going! Keep going until you cannot go any longer."

After the third and fourth laps, the completion times being much slower than before while Trina's was still stabilized, Trina allowed them to take a long break before making her way to the grassy knoll in the center of the track. She spread her legs out, stood erect and crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at them.

It was time to spar her, and everyone could see her hungry eyes glaring at Beck, who was standing a few feet away from them.

"Yeah I probably should warn you guys," Tori remarked. She knew her family members would have at least one of the friends that they would give a harder time, one of them with a mark over their heads. That particular target would be the one that they felt did something so extremely terrible. "Mom, Dad, and Trina all have at least one of you guys that they've put a mental mark over, so at least one of you will be given a harder time by them."

"That's uplifting," Andre muttered, "I'm guessing Trina's got her mark set on Beck then?"

"Oh yeah. Dad too, in a way, but he still is going to try and figure out who the person is that put his daughter in the hospital." Robbie's eyes shifted over nervously and the others shook their heads. That case never ended, primarily because David took it personally. He _needed_ to know who the person was that was responsible for nearly killing his daughter. "So someone better start praying, because you also omitted this from the whole honesty test-in other words, _I'm_ not going to be happy with one of you…I'll let you know up front, when I find out which one of you it was-and I will-our friendship is over. Period. There's no coming back from nearly killing my sister and lying to me about it."

"W-What about me?" Andre put his hand to his chest and started to pale. "I'm the one that sent that text that got her in the middle of that gang war, you didn't say anything about our friendship being over."

"You were honest about it, though at the same time blaming Beck. I'm still debating, I need to see you and Beck come around-if you're willing to put forth an effort to."

"Do you think whoever put Trina in the hospital will admit to it if they didn't at the honesty test?"

"Doesn't matter." She closed her eyes and bowed her head, tightening her fingers on her knees and tugging her lips back into a frown. "Because if no one confesses to me, Daddy _will_ find out, and when he does…Don't even bother coming to me, because you'll know our friendship is over."

Not to mention that person would very likely be arrested. In the state of California, the cutting of the harness, being deliberate and with intent to harm, is constituted as an attempted murder for which the statute of limitations was somewhere around three to six years. Whoever confessed to the crime, Tori knew as unfortunate as it was, would be arrested and tried. If someone did tell her, she would be required by law to tell the police or she herself could be held liable. Having only been a year ago, the case was not cold and still under investigation. They needed a confession from somebody, and because it was only attempted murder, the investigation had been going slowly to this point.

* * *

So looks like the friends are seeing another side to the sister, though this is only phase one. By the way, we had another cameo, just saying. Now, four more chapters to go, seems like it's going to go fast and that's because this was never meant to be that long. Not a full fledged story but a oneshot, so it's not that it's compressed, it's that there's only one primary focus.**  
**


	9. Trina Complete

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 9 (Trina Complete)

"Beckett, you're up first! And if you're afraid to hit a woman, don't be, I'll wipe the floor with you a lot faster." Beck bounced up from the bleachers and swept his fingers through his hair, scoffing lightly.

"I'm not afraid to hit a woman." Tori raised an eyebrow at him and Jade moved her hand to her forehead, shaking her head. Beck, seemingly realizing what he said quickly turned around and lifted his hands defensively. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant I'm not afraid to hit Trina-wait no!"

"Just go before you dig yourself any deeper," Andre muttered. "Everyone already knows you're pretty much the only person to ever get physical with her."

"Damn it, I don't mean-"

"Beckett!" Beck flinched at Trina's booming voice. He wasted no more time and ran up to the grassy area. Trina wagged her eyebrows and curled a confident smirk. "I'll try not to get too much of your blood on the grass." Beck's eyebrows rose and he took a shaky step backwards as Trina cooly advanced upon him.

"Oh..." Trina was standing erect, walking slowly with her arms swaying at her sides with her legs. Her hands were clenched into tight fists and her sharp eyes were fixated on him. "Fuck."

She stopped moving and swept her fingers through the bangs above her eyebrows. "Don't be afraid, Beck. Unless of course, you're ready to admit I'm better than you at something…Trust me, you're not in my league. It takes years of training to get where I am, it only takes a single class to learn how to act." Trina cracked her neck to the right and slowly moved her arms out to the side, raising them above her head, then bringing them down in front of her chest. She kept her palms extended and narrowed her eyes. "Get your hands up Beck…I can't tell you how long I've wanted this."

"She's just scaring him at this point," Tori leaned back on the bleachers and shook her head, "Trying to get under his skin. Psych him out. I think."

"Partially," Sinjin replied. The other friends looked over, each confused by his words. "Ever since the whole thing with them and her dad, she's been wanting to kick his ass."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, he's a dead man walking. Even I wouldn't try to stop my wife at this point."

Jade put her hands to her mouth and called out. "Beck! Run! She is _not_ going to go easy on you!" She put her hands down and shook her head. "I have to admit though, he _does_ deserve whatever is about to happen to him."

"Man and I just stopped running!" Beck turned, but before he could do anything, Trina was on him like a lioness on its prey. Her right heel slammed into his upper back, forcing him forward. He spun around and lifted his hands, still backing up. Trina's right eyebrow arched high. "You're not that good, not that frightening."

"Right, I'm a talentless hack that's been into martial arts since I was eight and got a black belt when I was fifteen. _However_ did I make it into Hollywood Arts? Oh right, I must have _fucked_ someone to get in!" Her face grew wild with anger and Beck started to pale, not having realized Tori informed her of what he said. "Well Beckett, you're about to get fucked-but in a much different way than I'm sure you'd like…"

"No!" She lifted her right leg and slammed her foot forward, striking his ribcage. He staggered backwards and she followed up with a right knife-hand strike into his side. Beck collapsed to the ground, clutching his sides and looking up as Trina's shadow fell over him. Her head blocked the sun from view and made her appear as a silhouette. "I thought you weren't going to hurt…"

"Sparring _does_ hurt, you're supposed to make contact with the other person. I pull my punches and kicks-just not with you. Guard your face, Beck, that's where I'm going next. I will bludgeon you, since I don't feel like being a good sport for you."

"Is this because of those times before?"

"Yes. Unlike Tori, I don't give a shit if you respect me or not, but you better damn well start fearing me." She grabbed his shirt and pulled him up, glaring ferociously into his eyes. "Because for all the shit you put me through, I've had enough of it. I watch how you act around my little sister, and I'm telling you right now, I will fuck you up if you screw with her."

"Okay! Uncle!" Beck screamed and pushed himself away from her, landing on his palms. He began crawling towards the track, but Trina grabbed his right ankle and started pulling him in, causing him to cry out. "Okay, stop please! I admit it! You have talent! You have talent! I'm sorry!" With that, she released him and let him run for the bleachers.

"Damn she's hotheaded," Jade remarked. Tori smirked as Jade crossed her arms and arched her brows. "I like that. Never seen that side of her." Beck clutched his heaving chest and whimpered. Tori loved seeing him in this position, because it told her that he was in no way perfect. "Who's going up against her next?" Jade snapped her fingers and pointed to Andre. "Hey! You!" Andre's eyes widened and he quickly shook his head.

"N-No I don't want to die."

"Oh she won't kill y-" Jade paused and looked to Tori. "Will she kill him?" Tori laughed and Andre met Trina's fiery gaze. "Go ahead Andre, I'm sure you'll be fine. Maybe if anything, she'll take you out quicker than she did Beck."

"How is that supposed to comfort me?"

"No idea. Good luck." Jade pat his back. Tori watched him slouch and slink towards Trina. Tori tapped her foot on the ground, watching Andre closely as he approached her sister. She heard Jade say something and glanced from the corner of her eyes to see the girl talking to Courtney. "So you and Tori were friends?"

"Yeah," Courtney answered, "We're working on things."

"What happened?" Cat inquired. Tori looked away, observing Andre and Trina. Andre swung his fist and Trina swept her arm upwards, knocking the strike away. She countered with direct blow to his abdomen. While this was going on, Tori kept one eye on them and her ears on her friends. "You two sound like you were great friends."

"We were until she abandoned me for you guys." Andre swung again, but Trina stepped to the side, dodging the blow. She grabbed his arm, twisted it around his back, then struck him in the lower back, sending him face down on the ground.

"We never meant to steal her," Jade remarked, "I don't know what happened. I guess we influenced her a little." Andre returned holding his back and muttering to himself. Robbie decided to go up next, despite his leg injury. Tori heard her sister inform him that he had an obvious weakness, and promptly taught him to use an opponent's weakness against him. By this, she struck at his already sore leg, then struck him in the sternum, forcing him down. "And there goes Robbie."

"She's a hard hitter," Andre muttered, "You girls should watch out." Tori wasn't surprised Trina was being hard on the boys, they were the ones that usually wound up pissing her sister off. Of course, Trina did clash with Jade sometimes. "I'm still sore. Beck, man, how are you holding up."

"Still in pain," He gasped. "It hasn't gone down, I think I have some internal bleeding." Tori frowned at him, her eyebrows falling flat over her eyes.

"You'll live Beck, stop complaining."

"Your crazed sister just beat me up and you're scolding me?" Jade and Cat parted their lips and Courtney slid her gaze to Beck. A wrinkle grew on Tori's forehead as she looked to Beck, she'd truly had enough of his arrogance. As Robbie limped over, Cat hurried over to Trina, figuring it would be better over there.

The tension in the air choked them, tearing at them. "Beck, I'm guessing you don't care about the friendship."

"No, I don't care about your goddamn sister." Beck threw his hand into the air and stepped off the bleachers. Sinjin furrowed his brow as Tori began to stand. "She's insane, crazy, and okay so maybe she's got some talent, but Jesus who gives a fuck!

Sinjin crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "That's my wife you're talking about, Beck."

"Yeah well good for you, she has someone else to annoy. I'm sure you'll be perfectly happy in your marriage." Tori moved her hand to her forehead, studying Sinjin closely. The man's muscles were tensing and he was starting to stand up.

"Beck that's enough," Jade warned, "Trina's not really that bad…I guess…"

"I've tried to be patient and see this through, but honestly Tori if you think we care about your annoying sister, your whorish mother, and your negligent father, then you're wrong! They're nothing to-" In that instant, a powerful blow struck Beck, flooring him. Sinjin stepped over the man, his chest heaved and his lips were in a full scowl. Beck clutched his jaw and looked up with wide eyes.

"That is enough!" Sinjin exclaimed. "You will not talk about my wife or her family like that." Sinjin reached down and pulled Beck up by the shirt, then threw another punch at Beck's head, followed by a swift backhand. Beck fell onto the ground, moaning softly. Jade cupped her hands over her mouth while Andre and Robbie remained frozen in place.

"It's okay Sinjin." Tori dusted off her pants and crouched beside Beck. She hung her elbows over her legs. A heavy sigh fell from her lips. "I was hoping you lasted longer, but I guess you just can't change." That was fine, not every research subject in a hypothesis and theory to test was successful. "If you can't respect my family, we can't continue this friendship. I thought I made that perfectly clear. You may not care about them, but I more about my family than I care about you. You don't have to like them, you just have to respect them. I'm sorry Beck, but it's over."

"Oh come _on,_ Tori…"

"I'm serious, but that's okay." Tori helped him to his feet and pat his shoulder "Something else about Trina, or more my dad. Dad's got his close friend from Vegas, a Mr. D.B. Russell visiting to give Trina some pointers about possibly being a CSI agent. His son, Charlie, has also been over, hanging with Sinjin and Trina, helping his dad with a case. Well…My dad's taking another look at an unsolved case and has Mr. Russell helping…Russell and his son are here-" She pointed a ways off at a man with white hair and glasses in the distance. Beside him was his son, a man with short brown hair and a pleasant smile. "They're on Dad's orders, instructed to follow and wait until I've finished with one of you. You still have to go through what my Dad's doing, Beck…I have no control over this."

"What are you talking about?" DB made his move with another nearby police officer and walked towards him. Everyone else remained frozen as handcuffs were thrown onto his wrists. "What the hell is going on?!"

"You're being arrested, taken in to custody," DB answered. "You're suspect in an attempted murder case."

"You remember what happened to Trina, don't you Beck?" Beck's eyes widened and Tori folded her arms. "I wanted Dad to wait until after dealing with Mom to put any of you in holding cells to be questioned-but I've lost my patience for you."

"Wait? Is this about the rope thing, the stage? I didn't do it, Tori! I'm innocent."

"Let the police figure that one out…" She had absolutely no control over this, she wasn't the police and it wasn't her investigation. "It's a police investigation. As far as I know you aren't being charged with anything yet, but Dad's holding you as a suspect for questioning. I'm sorry, I have absolutely no control over this, it's all Dad."

"He starts to get serious about this now?"

"He's _always_ been serious about his family. I'd say he was being overly generous. I'm sorry Beck, but this is goodbye. Even if you're found not to be the one responsible for Trina's fall-I don't see you being able to respect my family in the future and therefore don't see you respecting me. We're done."

"No!" Beck screamed as the officers led him away. Her father would be arresting each of them for questioning, holding them in a jail cell for a few days and figuring out who was the one responsible for Trina's near death. That was the task David came up with, and whether or not she approved, she had no control over what happened. It was a police investigation, even she had to give her account of what happened.

Just as she did, her father meant business. She returned to her seat as Cat came back, not gravely injured. Jade was next. She did well sparring with Trina, though not the most versatile fighter, she eventually lost out due to exhaustion. She managed to last the longest.

When Trina returned to the bleachers, she looked around for Beck, "I saw Mr. Russell and Charlie. They took Beck? I thought you asked dad to wait before doing his stuff?"

"Beck forfeited his friendship," Tori shrugged, "So I'm done with him. No more use for him, so Dad can do what he wants with Beck."

"Oh…"

"Yep." She looked to the remaining friends, who still looked shocked and attempting to regain their composure. "Tomorrow guys, we're meeting mom at the Mission. Be there bright and early, 8:00 in the morning. If you don't show up, I assume you don't care, and the tests are over for you, as well as my friendship." Robbie, Andre, Jade and Cat all nodded, understanding the cost. "Good. I look forward to seeing you there…"

It would be the end of the day, after they were finished with Holly, that her dad's phase would truly begin for the rest. She wasn't going to make her dad wait for longer than a day, since the law doesn't wait. At least, it shouldn't.

* * *

All right, so that happened. Trina looked a bit frightening in the beginning. That's it for her. Next up, Holly. Oh, and before I go let me leave off with something I don't normally do Hmm...oh yeah

So some of you challenged me to "do something different" which really I have done different things throughout but apparently not enough that the storyline stands to be more impacting than the apparent minor characterization and psychological states that you'd get anyway. So I'm going to guide you to my personal challenge (which actually I've been in the planning of for about a month now) that involves the supernatural. "Forbidden Magic" (the prologue is up but it will kick off once this story finishes in a couple more chapters). Try not to get turned off by the use of magic, it was the only way to explain the story. It's not really "magic' like you'd think of it, just the title of the story-it is meant to be dark but not too dark. Essentially it's going to involve possession, a statewide threat and some secrets. I bring it up as I notice a few of you haven't checked it out yet-and since I hadn't originally planned on going through with it for a while and was convinced by my beloved readers that I went ahead and put it up for ya.


	10. Hard Work

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 10 (Hard Work)

As the clock chimed 8:31, the front door of the medical free clinic swung open and Jade charged in. Tori sat at the reception window, tapping the counter. She met Jade's eyes and started to frown. "Jade, you're late. Mom's not going to be able to wait much longer before she can start teaching."

"Sorry." Jade's chest was heaving and her eyes were darting anxiously about her. Her hair was windswept and her body had a light tremble. "I tried to get here as fast as I could. Traffic was hell, then I couldn't find the place!" Holly had that problem for some time the first few days of working here, so Trina wasn't surprised. "What about Cat, Andre and Robbie? Did they make it?"

"Yeah." Tori pointed to the door leading from the waiting room to the hallway for all the nurses and doctors. Patients wouldn't start arriving until 9:00, so Jade had thirty minutes to learn what she could from Holly, but it would be rough. "The others were here on time, so you might just want to follow them around. Holly will be supervising all of you, and you're only going to be doing vitals. No shots administered because you don't have any formal medical training…vitals really aren't difficult."

"Okay. Thank you." Tori nodded and watched Jade rush into the door. Her mother was not going to be happy with Jade, but it was out of her hands now. She looked down to the textbook before her and smiled at the printed paper resting on top of it. It was a list of questions that Ian gave her to work on, questions that would make her search throughout the textbook. He was being hard on her, but for good cause. She could see herself miraculously pulling off an A in Science with his help.

Her teacher was even allowing her to make up some assignments to remove a few zeros.

She went through ten questions before deciding to take a break. Her eyes lifted up to the clock and she saw ten minutes before the clinic really started. Her mom was the head nurse here on Saturdays and it was still nearly as hectic as working at the hospital.

The main doctor already arrived, and the office woman was at her desk, checking appointments and other important things. Tori was usually free to do as she pleased. "Tori?" She looked over her shoulder at the doorway leading into the hallway. Holly was looking at her with a come-hither smile. "I need you to assist, but how are your studies coming?"

"They're good, I'm taking a bit of a breather so I'll come help." She got up and followed her mom. "What do you need help with, Momma?"

"I have them checking vitals and giving the cap sticks for the diabetes check." Every patient that came in would have their blood sugar tested. "I would like for you to work with Jade, since I've been working with Cat and having Robbie and Andre work with each other. I would also like for you to help explain to Jade how we document the information."

"So, act like a patient for Jade?"

"Yes, but first treat her as a patient. That way she'll see how you do it and she will be able to try the same."

"Okay. Mom, what are you going to do with them?" Holly closed her eyes and lifted her shoulders.

"When I first started working as a nurse at the hospital, I had a hellish boss. Everything I did was wrong, nothing was right, I had to work harder to please my boss but everything I went through helped me to grow. That was the intent, obviously, so that's what I'm going to have to do. It's for their benefit. They need the critique so they can improve. Not to mention, it should help improve their attitude."

"Right. That beatdown Trina gave Beck sure didn't help. Poor guy's at Dad's mercy now."

"Yes, it's unfortunate. I don't know why we're letting your other friends off scot free."

"We're not, they're all suspects in the case Dad's investigating. You know they're all going to spend that day in jail." It's to see consequences for actions and what would happen if they kept doing the things they'd been doing, so even Jade would see how close she came to nearly receiving a murder charge without being charged. Unless, of course, she was the one behind Trina's fall. Tori didn't think she was, but at this point, she didn't know if any of her friends were innocent or guilty. "They're all going to be questioned, and whoever was responsible will be up for trial…"

"It's only fair after what happened to my baby girl. Nobody hurts my babies and gets away with it without due consequence…" She saw the wild look in her mom's eyes and had to calm the woman before she got any dastardly ideas. The others didn't know how much of a mama bear Holly was. They only saw her at her exhausted points. "If I didn't know I'd lose my license I'd draw blood from Jade until she passed out. An eye for an eye."

"You really didn't raise me or Trina that way, Momma."

"That's right, baby, revenge is never the answer. No matter how nice it feels or how tempting it is. A bitter cake, that's what it is." Tori's eyebrow arched up as Holly folded her arms over her chest. "It looks sweet, looks nice and tasty but is really bitter and sour inside."

"Exactly, Momma…" Holly scared her sometimes. David may be frightening and truly protective, but it was Holly that had the vindictive streak. Even still, the mother knew her limits and where the line was drawn.

They walked into the small room where the friends were practicing vitals. Tori sat before Jade, who was seated beside an end table with a basket holding all the needed supplies. "Okay Jade, Mom wants me to help you. After this, she'll be watching you throughout the day."

"I know," Jade muttered, "She's already been hard on me. You should have heard her shout at me for being late. I know I messed up but damn…"

"Honestly? She can be scarier than dad sometimes. You should have seen the guy Trina dated several years ago." Jade frowned as Tori grabbed the blood pressure cuff. "Dad gave him a beat down for what he did to her, the guy wound up in jail too. Of course, when he got out, mom went after him…No idea what happened to him after that, I think he moved, and at Mom's order. Whatever she did to him scared him that much."

"Damn…what did he do to Trina?" Tori shrugged and pulled the corner of her lip back, forming a small indention on the right side of her face.

"Not my place to say what Trina's gone through with boyfriends. You remember Danny?"

"Yes. Didn't he disappear after dating Cat?"

"That's the key. When he and I dated years ago and he cheated on me, Dad may have given him a lashing, but Mom's the one that scared him into transferring away. He came back, dated Cat and then kissed me, Mom went to have a talk with him. He moved, is what happened."

Jade chuckled softly and looked to Holly, who was sitting in front of Cat, explaining capillary punctures. "Your mom's cool, Tori…I probably won't say that much, but she is. I didn't know she was that protective."

"Yeah, she's made her mistakes, but never faltered from being a mom. She's far from lazy and is a very hard worker, as you'll find out today. She's going to expect hard work and nothing less. 'You're working with human life, you can't afford to mess anything up', she'll say. Not to mention, she'll probably constantly bring up legal issues that all medical professionals need to look out for."

"Such as?"

Tori slipped the blood pressure cuff up Jade's arm, furrowing her brow as she pulled up the girl's sleeve. "I know you don't want to be reminded about it again-and mom's likely going to bring it up a million times today-that's how she is-big time guilt trip…"

"The blood thing?"

"Yes. That nurse responsible got fired, do you know why?" Jade shook her head and tucked her lower lip under her teeth. "Okay, malpractice. A medical professional knows not to drain too much blood from a patient. That woman continually drew blood even though she should have stopped. A patient can sue at their discretion-and suing typically ruins the reputation of a doctor. Would you see a doctor that you knew his staff endangered patients?"

"No…"

"Exactly. Mom is going to expect a lot out of you guys today, just like I expect a lot from you guys now. You're going to have to learn that actions do have consequences, but that part is where Dad comes in…"

"Your dad?"

"Yeah."

"Tori!" Holly exclaimed. "You're taking too long over there, snap to it dear."

"Yes Momma."

As the day progressed, Tori watched her mom make good on her promise to not take it easy. Anything less than perfection was what she strove for, so the friends did not have it easy. Robbie was the one to complain most about no breaks, no easy time, and of course, Holly told him that time was naturally stringent.

The waiting room grew heavy with a large mass of people to keep everyone busy.

Tori would check on the friends every now and then to see how they were faring with Holly. There were times when they weren't taking the vitals fast enough, so the mom would push them out of the way and start doing the job herself.

Jade and Cat did their very best to work as hard as possible, Andre was cracking under the pressure, and Tori was noticing an abundant amount of restroom breaks from Robbie.

This was indicative of him using the restroom as an excuse to take mini breaks, so she reported to Holly, who revoked his right to use the restroom for the next four hours.

At the end of the day, Holly told the gang how proud she was of them. They were happy, but lethargic. They sat in the empty waiting room, moaning softly. "I will never call the woman lazy again," Andre whimpered.

Tori chuckled softly and checked her cell phone, seeing a text message from Ian. Her body warmed and her heart skipped a beat as she checked his message. _How is the studying going? How are you and your friends faring at the clinic?_

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before rushing to answer. "Everything is going great. I really think they're starting to see something in mom that they haven't seen before. She actually has been offering them praise on occasion through the day, so I think that's affecting things. I'll include that in my research. Also, studying is going well."

_"Good to hear,"_ his response came nearly a minute later. _"I guess your dad's next?"_

"Yes. One more lesson for them. Unless of course, you'd like to deal with them."

_"Haha, I have nothing I want to do or say to them."_

"Fair enough." She hovered her fingers over the send button and lifted her head slightly while eyeing the screen for her next text. Her cheeks flushed and her heart began to pound as she started to type something extra. "Ian. Can we have a study date tonight?"

It was a long few seconds before his response came, and her nerves grew painfully sharp as she checked his answer, fearing rejection. To her surprise and pleasure, he said yes! She pulled the phone to her chest, hugging it as her lips turned to a bright grin and her eyes closed tight. Tori practically jumped for joy, she finally had a date with Ian!

After a few minutes, the clinic doors opened once more. Her eyes flicked up to see her father standing in the doorway. He was wearing his police uniform with the Assistant Chief insignia on his shoulders. Black shades rested on the top of his nose, shielding his sharp gaze. He wore a black cowboy hat that he reached up to tuck the brim downwards.

Next to him was his friend from Las Vegas, DB Russell, the specialist in questioning and crime scene investigations. Charlie Russell was also there, he was really just starting out as a cop working for his dad, he had a ways to go. There were other police officers entering as well, all waiting for David's instruction.

"Mr. Vega," Andre smiled and waved at the man, "Hey what brings you here?" David moved his hands to his hips and tightened his jaw. Andre lowered his hand and groaned as Robbie began to tremble before the man. Cat and Jade stood, both frowning.

"Can it, Harris," David instructed. "I have played nice cop for far too long, you've had too much free reign with my daughters. That ends today." Andre paled as an officer grabbed his arms and slapped the handcuffs onto him.

"What! Sir? I beg of you!"

Robbie started to run, which Tori found suspicious, but another officer grabbed him and pressed him up against the wall. Tears dripped from Robbie's face as he too was cuffed. "What is happening!" He cried. David tilted his head and slowly removed his shades, revealing narrow eyes.

"You're all being taken in for questioning regarding an attempted murder."

"No!"

"No arrest has been made yet, but an arrest will be made." Jade's eyes widened and Cat whimpered as the police advanced upon them. "I will no longer allow you to get away with the crimes you have or may in the future commit. I am not a police officer to take lightly…"

"I'm not a criminal!" Cat pleaded. "Sam, maybe, but not me!"

"I don't think we have a choice," Jade whispered. The girls were cuffed and led over to Andre and Robbie. Tori frowned at her friends and averted eye contact. All she could do was hope her dad wouldn't be hard on them. If she had any control over this part, she'd say not to send them all to the jail, but it was a police investigation and she could not hinder it.

What more, she had to tell him what Andre told her about having sent Trina to that spot where she walked into a gang fight. He confirmed it with Trina. Tori wasn't sure if it was a criminal charge or not, but regardless, her father wanted her around Andre even less than before.

"Good luck guys," She whispered, "Please remember what I said about honesty…It's the only thing that's going to help you now."

* * *

The clinic I modeled after the free clinic I did an externship at and volunteered at. 2 chapters left.


	11. Touring the Prison Yard

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 11 (Touring the Prison Yard)

Jade, Robbie, Andre, and Cat were led down a long tunnel in the middle of the night, there was a bright light at the end, and someone waiting just at the exit rim. When they got closer, Jade could see the person waiting was Beck. She ran up to him, happy to see him despite waiting their relationship to end because of the things he'd said. "Beck you're okay." She put her hand to her chest and exhaled as he gave her a hug.

"'Course I'm okay," Beck replied, "They haven't questioned me yet." Beck turned to Andre and Robbie, his eyes grew wild with rage. "Which one of you bastards is the one that cut Trina's harness back then? I am _not _staying in jail because of you!" The boys shrank back and Jade pinched the bridge of her nose. "Start singing!"

"Shouting won't solve anything. Where are we, Beck? This doesn't look like a police station."

"It's not, it's a federal state penitentiary…" Her blood ran cold and she looked over her shoulder with a frightened yelp. She thought they hadn't been charged with anything! "Mr. Vega said he wants us to tour it, essentially. Prison's a scary place. Have you guys taken your one phone call yet?" They shook their heads and Beck scoffed. "Don't waste it. I called my dad to get me out and he told me he had agreed with Mr. Vega that I needed to spend a day or two in prison! To 'learn that there are consequences' for the things I do…"

"Do you think they're taking us back to the police station cell?" Cat rubbed her arms and looked over her shoulder. "It's cold here, and dark."

"Not to mention scary," Robbie whimpered, "I don't like prison. I never thought Mr. Vega would do this." Jade could see why the man was finally cracking down on them. She understood perfectly what he was trying to say through all this, that they couldn't expect themselves to be above the law because they were friends with his daughter.

"We're not above the law," She whispered. The others shook their heads and looked to the exit. It was a strange looking prison yard outside, and she was terrified to go. If they were just touring this place, then she knew they wouldn't be here forever, but if they were then they'd be separated because most prisons were not coed. "Mr. Vega's making us pay for our crimes here…isn't he…"

"What crimes," Beck muttered, "We haven't been charged with anything yet."

"Well obviously someone is. Whoever the one is that's responsible for nearly killing Trina!"

"Who _cares_?"

Jade put her hands to her hips as a deathly silence surrounded them. She watched Beck walk off, then lowered her arms, growling at him. "You're an asshole! You know that! You really are!"

Beck turned to walk backwards and pat his chest. "Maybe I am, but at least I'm being honest! I don't give a shit about the Vegas, and now that Tori hates me, fine."

"Oh fuck off! You were trying to get her to kiss you when we only _just fucking broke up! _It's like you didn't even _try_ to wait before you were all over Tori!" Beck froze, his lips parted while the other friends exchanged wide eyed glances.

"You _knew_ about that?"

"Yes I knew!" She couldn't push down the rage simmering inside of her. It was one thing to date again a few months after breakup, but Beck was all over Tori so soon that it seemed almost like he didn't give a shit about her feelings. "All you ever care about is yourself! I'm not surprised Tori ended the friendship with you-but I'm not going down with you. I'm actually _trying_, unlike you, and if that means treating her family with respect…then I'll at least make an effort to try. I know I've got some problems, but Beck? You're the one with big time issues-I bet you are the one that nearly killed Trina."

"That wasn't me!" Beck lashed out at her, and in a flash, she found herself falling towards the ground. Her hand flew to her face as pain shot through her body. Her eyes widened as she looked up to him with fearful eyes. Cat rushed to her side while Andre and Robbie grabbed Beck's arms.

"That's enough!" Andre shouted. "No more!" Jade's eyes locked with Beck's, she wanted to get up but couldn't move. She wanted to shout at him, but no words could form. "Damn it man, you don't need to be hitting her. I get it, you're stressing out-we all are, but-"

"Get off me!" Beck pulled himself away and brushed his hands up against his face, sighing heavily. "I've done a lot of things, I know. Okay? Yes I told Andre to send that text, yes I restrained Trina then lied to her father, and yes I've done things that seem like I only care about myself…" Jade watched as he lifted a finger and narrowed his eyes at her. "But the one thing I did not do was cut the cord or whatever that put Trina in the hospital. I know it was one of us, but it was _not_ me…"

"You ought not treat women that way," another voice remarked. The group turned to see a man in prison garb standing before them. He had a buzz cut with light brown hair and a V shaped hairline. His left cheek had burn scars, he had a slash scar on his right jaw. His eyes were sharp and narrow, curdling their blood. He was muscular like that of an athlete. His powerful arms were folded over his chest. "Welcome to the devil's pit, as I call it…prison, as you refer to it."

"And who the fuck are you?"

"Name's Ross. Samuel Ross. The warden is waiting for you people." Jade slowly stood up and studied the man's face. He couldn't be that much older than they were, and his name sounded so familiar to her, but she couldn't place a finger on it.

"Where have I heard your name from? And why are you so beat up?"

"I've had a lot of people try to kill me. Sort of thing happens when you're in prison for the things I've done. Anyway, I was the star pitcher on the baseball team back at that school, Hollywood Arts, a few years ago. Also, you're friends with Tori Vega?"

"They are," Beck jerked his thumb over his shoulder and crossed his arms. Ross's eyes slowly moved to Beck. It filled Jade with a creepy feeling, as his eye sockets looked dry, bony, and had many cracks shooting out from the sides.

"You're treading a dangerous path right now." Beck raised an eyebrow as Ross started to turn. "Anyway, I dated her sister when we were fourteen or fifteen. It's been an incredibly long time. Mr. Vega got me in here for a very long time. Warden has me beat down daily, close to death, then heals me only to repeat the process the next day."

"Who's the warden?" The followed him out into the prison yard and a bright flash of light stabbed their eyes. When their eyes adjusted, they saw the lights of the prison yard turning on and revealing the yard to look like that of a baseball stadium. "What in the hell?"

"The warden arrived here a year ago, I think primarily to keep tabs on me. He modeled this place as such and I am once again the star pitcher of a baseball team-though you'd be surprised how many take a swing at me instead of the fucking ball."

"That much of an ass?" Beck replied flatly. Ross glanced to Beck with a subtle frown.

"Keep it up friend, you don't want to find out what it's like in a prison where you're hated by the warden, top three people on the police force, and the entire prison yard. People like me are naturally hated upon entry to prisons-people like you don't get along well either. Most of the men here don't care too much for those willing to disrespect women."

"A bunch of prisoners give a shit about disrespecting women? Bullshit."

Ross's lips curved up into a cold smirk. He pointed to Jade and furrowed his brow. "That your girlfriend?" A small group of prisoners began to circle them. Jade felt a stroke of fear as Beck began to sweat. "Let me tell you a little something about women and the people that care about them, they don't like disrespect. They don't like people touching them, hurting them, tearing them down or treating them like anything less than a human being." Ross moved his hand to his chest and closed his eyes. "Like you, I treated a girlfriend like an object-look where I am now, Beck. Someone takes a shot at me every other day, and Chief Vega's making sure prison's where I'm staying for a very long time. My friend, that's one officer that takes his job and his family _very seriously_….now…" Ross walked off a few feet and snapped his fingers for the other prisoners. "That man has been beating on his woman, deal with him as you see fit."

"What?!" The prisoners closed in on him. Jade quickly moved out of the way with the others. She threw her hands to her mouth as the prisoners tackled Beck to the ground. "No!"

"I've heard a lot about you while in the prison yard listening to the warden and the Chief. You manhandled his daughter? The Assistant Chief?"

"What's it to you!"

"Trina. Am I right?" The prisoners began to beat him down harder, causing him to scream in anguish. "I heard through the grapevine she nearly died because one you sent her to a gang…"

Andre began to shudder, shaking his head, "T-That was an accident. We're not criminals! We're just-"

"Assholes like me." Ross put his hand to his hips and looked up to a nearby platform. "Warden's here. Get off him boys." The prisoners growled and quickly left Beck. Jade fell to his side, reaching down to touch his bloody face. Her hand trembled as Beck looked up to her, moaning softly.

They heard a familiar deep voice and looked up to the platform where a tall man was standing. "That is courtesy of David." The man leaned forward over the guardrails and gripped the top of the rail firmly. Jade squinted her eyes at the man, then gasped upon recognition.

"Gary! The guy Mrs. Vega was cheating with? You're a warden now?"

"Yes, I look after adult sized babies." Gary crossed his arms and scowled. "It's my punishment really, being the warden of this place. David got promoted, put me here. I deserve it though-having been his best friend and all."

"You were best friends?"

"Yep, we played college baseball together." Gary spread his arms out and curved a toothy smirk. "I know it was wrong of me to enable that affair with Holly, we ended it and they reconciled. I'm…still trying to work things with him. Let me tell you, if you're friends with the Vegas and you cross them like I did…you lose a very good thing, their trust and respect." Ross nodded slowly while the friends exchanged nervous glances. "I know why you're here, David wants me to show you a good game…"

"We haven't been arrested for anything," Robbie said, "We're only suspects."

"Right, see…he's thinking of the questioning order. Not to mention-you've met Ross, why do you think he has some control over the other prisoners? For a man like him-he's had to do a lot of hard baseball games-I'm only disgusted that I've not been allowed to kill him yet." Ross raised an eyebrow and flipped Gary off, to which Gary bared his teeth. "You're lucky David still respects the law, boy."

"So what's going on?"

"What is going on? I will tell you. For years, I've watched those two girls grow up. Trina, Tori, they've been like a second family to me. To hear the things you motherfuckers have done to them…" He cracked his neck and narrowed his eyes. "You're lucky I don't set you on fire right now." Jade whimpered as Gary began to walk down the flight of stairs of the platform. "Putting Trina in the hospital, draining little Victoria of her blood…Nearly killing them both multiple times. Cussing out his wife. You have gotten off scot free for a lot of things, and I've told David many times that he should do something, but no…you were Victoria's 'friends'. I've hated you all for years, watching you abuse that family, walking all over them-treating them like _trash_ because you think you're better-but now you're finally being held responsible for your actions and I couldn't be more thrilled!" He stepped onto the ground and a violent sneer stretched out onto his face. "It's a shame he only wants you to see what prison is like and doesn't want you to stay-though I _will_ enjoy seeing the one that _is_ getting questioned for the crime he's been investigating lately…"

Jade heard Robbie whimper and quickly looked over her shoulder, gasping under her breath. Had he been the one to cut that harness? Was he the reason they were going through all of this? A lump formed in her throat and she quickly looked towards Gary. Beck slowly rose to his feet, wiping the blood from his face. "This is what prison's like, is it?" He checked the blood on his hand and growled at Ross before looking over to Gary.

"Yes, David wanted to show you what prison's like and he entrusted me with the task." Gary flicked a finger to Ross and smirked. "Prisons are a lawless place and you have to exert swift control otherwise the prisoners will be uncontrollable, so as a warden you must rule with fear. Ross has been my chosen 'example' for a while now, he's more than happy to hear the possibility of someone else taking his place to be made an example of. Aren't you, Ross?"

"Fuck off," Ross growled. Gary rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb to the side.

"Go grab the bats, these guys will be playing our much beloved sport." Jade watched Ross slink off and pressed her lips tightly together. "Welcome to hell, and I'm in charge. What does that make me? Or, should I say, what does that make David if he holds more power than I do-oh right-since you're friends with his daughters and he has every control over where you people end up…as well as being a hell of a lot nicer than I am-having given you _multiple_ chances to clean up your act?" Gary tapped his chin and lifted his eyebrows. "I suppose that makes him the all-powerful god of your fucking world. Now…" His eyes slanted and his eyebrows meshed together, forming a wrinkle between the two. "Let's play ball! You will be playing in order to determine the order in which you are questioned."

"Normally the loser would receive something too," Ross remarked while returning to the group with a bunch of bats. "Usually no food for the next day-or in my case a trip to the boiler room." Ross dropped the bats to the ground and glanced over to Beck. "Hey you. Since one of you will probably be coming back with a guilty verdict. I really hope the guilty one is you. I'll enjoy mocking my roommate in that boiler room very much." Beck's eyes widened as Ross crossed his arms. "I haven't had a chance to beat the shit out of anyone in quite some time."

* * *

Now that they know what it's like inside a prison, they may clean up their act. Next chapter we'll find out who passes and who doesn't.


	12. Batting Cages

Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

* * *

Chapter 12 (Batting Cages)

"Andre, Beck, Jade, Cat, you're free to go," David instructed while leading the friends out to the police van on the following afternoon. The questioning was over and Andre spilled his account of what happened when the harness broke, leading the man to suspect Robbie was the closest lead. In questioning, Robbie broke down and confessed to Mr. Vega and Mr. Russell. The friends were a little perplexed that he was gone, however. "Your friend, Robert Shapiro, will not be joining you."

"You arrested him?" Jade asked the obvious question, knowing already the answer to it. It was hard for them to believe that he would arrest one of them, but knowing that he would meant they would be on shaky ground in the future if they tried anything. He was not a man to be tampered with-and neither was his family, they understood that now-or they thought they did. "We're free to go home?"

"Yes, but there is just one thing I'd like to do before you go." He ushered them into the van and they pleaded not to go back to the prison where Gary and the creepy inmate Ross would be waiting for them. As he started up the car and drove off, he assured them they would not have to go back. "Only way you'll be going there is if you do something to warrant you going to prison. Though Beckett, your actions bring you very close…"

Beck began to pale and Jade leaned away from him. She'd broken up with him last night after the baseball game. She was still furious over his having struck her, but that was just one thing in the long string of events going on. The way he'd been talking to Tori lately was a major thing with the things he'd been saying.

The group arrived at a place of their nightmares, batting cages with automatic ball shooters. David guided each into a booth, handed them a bat, and shut the door. "Now. I don't require you to like me, but I have every reason to expect you to respect me." He moved into Beck's cell first and walked up to the machine. "My daughters-and my wife mean more to me than anything else in this world. If you lie to one of them, if you damage them, or hurt them in any way-then you will be answering to me."

"She already cut me off," Beck replied while raising his hand. David smacked the button on the machine and the boy yelped as a ball shot out. He dodged to the side and moved the bat to his shoulder. "What the hell?!"

"I know she already cut you off. Doesn't mean I won't make an example of you like the rest." David locked his hands behind his wrist and walked in an arc behind the machine. "The name of the game is baseball, Beckett. Not dodgeball. You are to hit the ball and keep hitting the ball."

"But you're standing-" David jerked his thumb to the back exit of the cage. Beck's face dropped and he watched the man take his exit. The balls began to shoot out at a higher speed-signaling Beck to start swinging to keep up.

David did this same thing with the remaining friends and stepped out to face all of them. He furrowed his brow at them, studying their form and their technique. Jade was standing completely erect with her arms straight and the bat was hanging over her shoulder when in rest. Cat was holding the bat pointing downward. "Catherine, it's baseball, not golf!"

"Sorry sir!" Cat shrieked and hit another ball that shot out at her.

"Jade, bend your knees and hold your arms at a ninety degree angle at your elbows. You will have much better accuracy that way." Jade took his advice and smiled, she was more relaxed in this pose. With this, she was beginning to hit more of the balls popping out. Andre let out a yelp and David glanced over to see the boy narrowly dodging a ball. "Andre, don't stand directly in the machine if you do not want to get hit!"

"Thank you, sir!"

"Okay, now while you're all doing that. Let's talk about what _is going _to happen. Or what I expect out of you." He began to pace, watching them from the corner of his eyes. "Expect no freebies, you cannot get away with everything-as your friend Robbie just discovered. His fate now rests at the hands of the courts-I can no longer do anything with him. He will go through trial. If any of you break criminal law-expect the same treatment. This has nothing to do with my family, it is expected of every able minded person in this world that they follow the laws of their land. You break the law, you get punished. Do you understand that?"

"Yes sir!" Cat exclaimed. David moved his hands towards his chest and lifted his shoulders.

"I don't make the laws of the state. I do, however, make the laws of what goes on under my roof or towards my family." His expression tensed and stress marks formed at the corners of his mouth. His jawline grew more detailed and his eyelids slid into narrow slits. "I am the king in my family, the head of house, and I demand respect. If I say to look at me and listen, you look and listen. If I want the god honest truth, you will give me the goddamn truth. Stop me if you don't understand, and pay close attention. Also you will refer to me henceforth with respect. 'Sir' or 'Chief Vega' will do just as well as 'Mr. Vega'. You will refer to my wife only as 'Mrs. Vega', and you will not call us by our first names."

The four were beginning to tire under these baseballs, but it didn't look like David would be shutting off the machine anytime soon. "Yes sir," the girls belted out. Andre grunted and Beck continued to focus on the balls.

"My family's personal lives are none of your business. My wife is a hard working woman who-yes-had an affair with my best friend, but is _that_ any of your business? Something you need to talk about?"

Cat began to pant heavily, "No sir. It's not, sir." David gave her a smile and walked in her cage to reduce the speed of the balls. "Thank you, sir." Jade caught this and curved her lips into a subtle smile. She was pleased and had an idea, so long as she was respectful, he would lower the balls. Rewarding them if they gave the right answer, punishing them if they did not.

In psychology, this was a behavior modification exercise. Was he doing this part for Tori? Maybe on part, but the things he was saying, she understood. He did need to be respected as the father of their best friend and a high ranking police officer.

"Now I might have let some of you get away with stuff in the past, but do not think this means you will get away with anything in the future. I will be watching, and on the first instance of mistake, you _will_ be gone. Andre, I'm going to tell you right now, after having watched you-I do not want you around my daughter."

"What?!" Andre's jaw fell and his eyebrows lifted up. The others continued to focus on swinging to hit the baseballs, but were listening closely. "I don't understand."

"You set my eldest up to go into the middle of a gang war, you have chosen to be with those you date more than you have chosen to care about my daughters. Evidenced by your carelessness during Lane's questioning. You have acted multiple times on the behalf of Beck-who has been turned down by my daughter-which also leads me to distrust you. You are clearly impressionable amongst Beck, willing to do as he asks." Beck flicked his gaze towards Andre and frowned as the man bowed his head. "Who is to say Beck wouldn't ask you to try another stunt on one of my daughters, or even my wife. I do not trust you near my family, so therefore I do not want you around them."

"But sir!"

"My word is final. If I tell you something, you will listen."

"But-"

Jade rolled her eyes and turned to Andre, "Enough, Andre! He said he doesn't want you or Beck around his family. You're done." Andre let out a shout and threw his bat to the ground, startling the others. David shook his head and moved to Beck's cell.

Beck's hair had fallen around his face, sweat was drenching his neck and forehead, and his movements were slowing. "My greater issue is with you, Beckett. I don't know how many times you lied to my face, and I do not know how many times you disrespected my wife and children. My order to you is clear: you are to stay away from my family at all times. For the remainder of my daughter's school year I will request Mr. Sikowitz assign you or Tori a seat away from each other. I will entrust-should Tori decide to give Catherine and Jade another chance-the two of them to make sure you do not come around my daughter. This is your verbal restraining order, do not make me get a written one. I don't expect I will have to worry about that, will I Beckett?"

"No sir," Beck muttered.

"Speak up. I didn't hear you."

"No sir!"

"Much better." David moved to the cages were Cat and Jade were, he folded his arms across his chest and met their gazes. "Now what have you two learned, if anything?"

"You're to be treated with respect," Jade answered, "As are your daughters and your wife. What goes on in the family affairs is not our business, but that of your household alone. Whatever you say goes and we are not to do anything that may harm your family in any way."

"Good job, Jade. Glad to hear it." David turned off her batting machine and she sank to the ground, sighing heavily as her muscles burned from the exhaustion. "Cat?"

"Always be honest and sincere," Cat replied, "Never lie or cheat. When it comes to your family, you are the boss. We're to listen to and respect you, you wife and both of your daughters. We're friends, so we need to act like it and not be selfish or cruel to your family."

"Good. Glad to hear it." He turned her machine off. Cat stood tall, her chest heaved and her breaths fell from her lips as her bat slipped from her grasp. "You and Jade can return to the van. I'm going to spend a little extra time with Beck and Andre…" The men yelped and the girls hurried to the van.

Back at the house, Tori was going through the last bit of her questions and typing up some of the final observations for her paper. Ian and Courtney were giving her some further tips and suggestions. She'd gotten the news about Robbie and was disheartened as well as angry that he'd been the one to hurt her sister, but she was glad that part of everything was closed.

She'd been watching the events of the batting cages from a video feed her dad set up. Jade and Cat impressed her, as well as showed the most growth. If anyone could be given a second chance, it was them. "Think this report looks good?" She moved the laptop to Ian's lap and he studied it. Courtney leaned over to read the report and slowly nodded.

"I think you did a great job writing it."

"Thanks."

Holly and Trina came down the stairs and looked over to be sure she was studying. Instinctively she asked them to check the report as well. While they were going over it, her father entered the house with Jade and Cat. Tori looked their way and folded her arms. "Well, how did it go?"

"We wanted to say something," Jade began. Tori stood up from the couch and looked back to Holly and Trina, who were watching the girls with intrigue. "First to Mrs. Vega and Trina. We're sorry if we did anything to hurt you, anger you, disrespect you-you're Tori's family and we should respect you more."

"Right," Cat agreed, "I really enjoyed spending time with you guys. I think I might actually want to volunteer at that clinic some more." Holly grinned. Tori was surprised to hear this from one of her friends. It pleased her to know Cat was interested in her mom's work. Jade nodded and glanced over to Trina.

"I've also been thinking, I'd really like to learn some things about martial arts and self-defense." Trina crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow as her lips curved up into a small smirk. "I admire that you're strong and able to stand your ground-and I'd like to learn some more."

"Okay," Trina shrugged, "I'd be glad to teach you some forms. There's going to be a few rules though, we're done being walked on."

"Yeah, and I'm sorry that we did all that. It won't happen again. I think I just, I don't know, I had a lot going on with me." Jade took a deep breath and turned to Tori. "I'm sorry I was always so hard on you, Tori. I'll try to be a better friend to you, because I know you deserve that." Tori moved her hands to her hips and cracked a smile as Jade pointed to her textbook. "I know a little bit about science. Not a lot but I know enough to help you if you'd like."

"Well I already have Ian tutoring me, but I don't mind having some extra help if you really want that. Thank you though, Jade. All I ask of you-and you, Cat-is a little respect. For me and for my family. I'm willing to give you two another chance, but I'll be watching for a little bit, I want to make sure you're not just saying this…"

"Fair enough."

"We'll try and let you study too," Cat added, "If you tell us you're busy, we'll leave you alone."

"I appreciate that. I'm studying with Ian and Courtney right now, but you guys are more than welcome to stay around and help if you like-if Mom and Dad are okay with that?" She looked to her parents for an answer, hoping they'd say okay. She really wanted them to e get to know Ian and Courtney.

David crossed his arms and hummed as Holly continued to glance over Tori's work. "She is nearly done with her report, David. I think if her friends want to help her with her studies, it will be okay." Jade and Cat lit up with excitement and hope while David merely scratched at his chin.

"I suppose so." He pointed at Tori. "No distractions, just focus on your studies. I want that grade up by the end of your semester. You're already on the verge of having to take summer school and not graduating, so due diligence, Victoria."

"Yes, Daddy."

"I didn't know it was that bad," Jade stated, "I thought you just had a low grade…"

Tori chuckled softly as the two girls moved over to the couch. "The things you learn when you actually pay attention to what's going on. So I'm done with the guys, but you guys are okay in my book." She hugged the two, then grabbed her textbook from the coffee table while her family returned to their rooms.

Cat looked to Courtney and Ian, smiling openly at the two. "So how long have you known Tori for?"

"Since Sherwood," Ian replied, "She was my science partner."

Courtney nodded, "Yeah and we knew each other since we were kids. We met through our siblings. I could tell you stories about our lives growing up." Tori's eyes widened and Courtney flashed an evil smirk. "Like the one time with the clown at her eleventh birthday party."

"Oh god no!" Tori shrieked. "God so many balloons!" She not only wondered why there would be a clown at her birthday party, which was embarrassing enough. As it turned out, he wasn't even supposed to be at her party, but some kid's all the way across town. "Don't tell that story!"

"Oh I've got many joys of our friendship to share with these two."

"Why does that scare me?"

"After the last couple of years? It should scare you." The others laughed and Tori shook her head, chuckling under her breath. David leaned back, peering at them from his study.

"I don't hear studying in there!" She flinched and looked down at her textbook, still snickering.

"Sorry dad!"

As it would turn out, all the studying paid off. Tori was able to learn enough with the help of her new boyfriend and support from her friends that she miraculously turned her grade in science into an A. Granted, it was just barely a 90 average when she took the final, but the point was, she passed.

The instructor was very pleased with her paper on behaviors and how tests could influence whether or not attitudes and behaviors got to be changed. As Jade and Cat got to know her and her family more, they meshed well with them. They got along with Courtney, Ian, and Sinjin as well, which was a plus for Tori.

As for Andre and Beck, they stayed away as promised. Robbie got a few years of prison sentencing for his crime and for not owning up to it. Jade wound up learning some impressive moves from Trina and was happy when the woman led her to her old martial arts instructor. Cat went on to college to study medicine, and looked up to Holly as a mentor who taught her as much as she could while also being hard on her so she could improve.

Tori was pleased with her success, and enjoyed having Jade's and Cat's friendship. They went above and beyond in learning their lessons and keeping true to their promise of respecting her family. It helped the friendship they had to strengthen, and she hoped it would be a lasting one. How long it lasted, only time could tell.

* * *

The end. I hope you enjoyed the story.


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